


Courting Magic

by Hawkflight



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Humor, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Veela, Veela Hermione
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-11-02
Updated: 2013-12-23
Packaged: 2017-12-31 07:36:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 25,893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1029006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hawkflight/pseuds/Hawkflight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I'm a what?"<br/>"A Veela Miss Granger."</p><p>Hermione's not-so-normal life has been turned upside down at recent news. Not only is she a Veela but she must find her mate in a school with well over a hundred students and be accepted by him. But, what if she's been looking in the wrong place the whole time?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everybody! who's reading this... I know, I know, there's a lot of Veela fics out there already but I'm just throwing mine in with the rest. (though I don't paticularily know of any others for this couple) Hope you enjoy it! Also, the chapters will be longer as this is just the prologue. We're going to have fun on this bumpy ride!
> 
> Thanks to worrywart for betaing the prologue! (ff)

Hermione sat in the chair listening to a lecture on the War Between Faeries And Syunbeeks that had happened in of 902. The lecture was interrupted though when McGonagall strode into the room and asked for her, adding to that she should gather her things as she had a matter to discuss with her **,** and it would take some time.

The young Gryffindor got up from her chair after putting her scrolls of parchment and quill away.  She quickly got up, getting a few glances from her Gryffindor classmates, but otherwise was ignored. After all, this _was_ her seventh year, and it would probably just be about her career choices. She couldn't possibly be in trouble.

Could she?

Hermione shook away the thought **,** knowing she hadn't, done anything wrong  and besides, McGonagall would have pulled her aside before class this morning if that was the case. Obviously it was something that had just come up while she had been attending her other classes and yet, she felt kind of flustered. The professor had spoken rather urgently, but it would only be noticeable to those in her house. It was really no wonder that the others had looked at her, wondering what was going on to put the teacher in such a state.

She urged herself to hurry since McGonagall had left the classroom immediately, obviously going to her office. With her hand, Hermione pulled a strand of hair out of her face while turning the corner to her classroom. She slipped through the open door.

"Please, Miss Granger, close the door behind you," said McGonagall from beyond her desk, peering down at what appeared to be a letter.

Hermione turned around and closed the door before setting her supplies on the desk where she usually sat and walked forward toward the professor.

"Now," McGonagall said, looking up at her student. "Please sit down."

Hermione flicked her wand, and a chair came forward for her to sit on so she could remain in front of the professor.

"This may come as a shock to you, but the Department of Marriages, Births, and Deaths has recently been going through their records and updating them. They found that your grandmother was," Hermione watched as McGonagall seemed to be gathering herself up for it, as if she was unsure of the words that needed to come out of her mouth. "You're a Veela."

Hermione stared at the woman in front of her. There was no sugar coating what Minerva had just told her; she just said it point blank and allowed her to figure out what this meant, leaving her to connect the dots of what the woman hadn't wanted to say. Her grandmother had been a _Veela?_ She had never met the woman, so she couldn't personally confirm such a thing, but she knew what this entailed. Hermione closed her eyes for a moment, trying to wrap her mind around this. Just to be sure though...

"I'm a _what_?" she asked, thinking it was possible she had heard McGonagall wrong. That she _must_ have heard her wrong.

"A Veela, Miss Granger."

This time the words sunk in deep. "That... can't be right. Professor?" She glanced up from her lap that she had found herself to have beenstaring at for the past minute. "Can I see the letter?"

"Of course." McGonagall handed it to her within the second as if she already knew Hermione would ask for it.

After looking at the letter and all the tests to confirm it over though thoroughly, she simply leaned back in her chair. Shock ran through her and she slowly put the letter and the other papers inside back on Professor McGonagall's desk.

"I know this must be hard to take, but as you are eighteen and the year is just beginning, you do have a decent amount of time to find your mate and for them to fall in love with you before you turn nineteen. I assure you, Miss Granger, it is possible to do."

"Find... my mate?" What if it wasn't Ron? The boy growing into a man that she had come to love over the many years, even with their misadventures. There were a lot of students at Hogwarts; could she really depend on the fantasy that her mate was even within these walls? It would take forever to find him, and ifshe didn't find him and turned nineteen, she would die. She shivered at the thought.

"Such things like this have happened at Hogwarts before," Minerva continued, "and five out of six times their mate was within these walls. When the mate was not here, they somehow found each other in Hogsmeade."

The words were reassuring, but fear still pounded through Hermione'sveins.

"With you being a Veela, we still have a few more matters to discuss, Miss Granger."

"Like?" Hermione asked even though she knew what was coming next. She had read enough about Veelas in her years at Hogwarts for purely recreational purposes.

"When you do find your mate, we will give you a separate room so you can be alone together. Of course this would be easier if your mate is in Gryffindor."

Dear gods, she didn't even want to think about her mate being in a different House. Okay, she wouldn't care if they were a Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw,but a Slytherin had to be out of the question. She couldn't stand any of them, and her friends had told her countless times how accepting she was of everyone. I can hope, she thought bitterly.

McGonagall must have seen the look on her face for she stated another percentage of sorts. "Four out of six times the mate was in the same house."

This did ease her mind, and she sighed softly, feeling a partial weight come off her shoulders. Once she thought about it though, that was little more than half of the Veela cases at Hogwarts. Either could be possible here.

"I would also like to remind you, a Veela-once they recognize their mate-must have some sort of physical contact, not always sexual," McGonagall added, seeing Hermione's eyes flicker towards her in uncertainty. "to gain energy. I'm sure you know this from all the reading you do, but I must make sure you understand what is going on. Finding your mate won't necessarily be a walk in the park,and you will feel more tired than usual; of course, I'm sure you've noticed this already."

Hermione was aware of the sudden dull ache in her bones after her birthday, waking up to yawn each morning even when she had a full night's sleep. She hadn't thought much of it, but in all honesty, she should have realized it was a sign. Then again, she had never expected herself to be a Veela.

"I understand." she replied.

"When you do find your mate you will also be protective of them and jump to their defence whether they are right or wrong as is the nature of a Veela-"

"Professor?" she interrupted. "You said my grandmother was a Veela so that makes me a quarter Veela, right?"

"Correct." Minerva looked to the girl and frowned. "I'm sorry for pushing this all onto you at once, but I figured it would be best. What is it the muggles say... 'ripping it off fast like a plaster'?"

Hermione nodded, even though it wasn't the exact words muggles used for the phrase. It still meant the same thing, and she was glad McGonagall had done it this way so that she knew exactly what this entailed for her, how it would affect her life. She still had one question though.

"Professor McGonagall, how do I know when I find my mate?"

The Professor met her student's gaze steadily. "You'll just know."

Hermione stood up after this, so fast her head rushed for a moment, causing the room to spin and she grabbed onto the chair to steady herself. "Thank you for telling me immediately Professor." She turned, grabbing her book bag and left the room in a flurry of steps.


	2. Chapter 1

After checking the time and realizing the conversation had taken up the rest of her classes she hurried up to the Gryfindor common room. She stopped to say hello to Ron and Harry who were playing wizard chest once again instead of doing their homework. Some things never changed.

"Hey Hermione," Ron said, "D six." a rook moved along the board.

Harry turned to her, "Hey, so what did McGonagall have to say?"

"She just needed to talk to me about the classes I decided on to make sure it went well with my career choice." Hermione lied while turning her eyes away, which she hadn't meant to do as it told him right away that something was off. "I have to go but I'll see you tomorrow." Her words cut off his own before he could even speak. She turned around, her eyes settling on a blaze of red hair. As she walked by Ginny she whispered, "meet me upstairs in a few minutes I have to tell you something."

Walking quickly up the steps Hermione turned into the girl's hall and threw her door open to go and sit down on to her bed glancing around the room wondering how she was going to do this with the time given. Just clam down she told herself. Everything will be alright, you have seven months afterall it should be plenty of time to find your mate and make them fall in love with you. It should be being the key words. It could be a total mess. She may not find her mate. She-

Breath Hermione.  Taking in a slow breath she blew it gently out and muttered, "I can do this." to herself just as the door opened.

"Do what?"

"Oh Ginny! Sit down, please." Looking up she spotted her friend and directed her over to sit on the bed opposite of her own.

"I heard you had to go to McGonagall's office. What happened that's got you all stirred up?" She began to open her mouth to answer the ginger but then hesitated. "Hermione?"

How was she suppose to go about this? It was so sudden. She had just figured out what she was barely an half hour before when that dicussion with McGonagall had concluded. Calm down. She took in another breath to prepare herself to just go with it. To just blurt it out. That would be the best way, right? But what if it wasn't? What if...

Just say it. Her mouth started moving before she even knew what was happening at the silent command to herself. "McGonagall called me in because I'm a quarter Veela." Ginny's eyes widened drastically, mouth dropping open to look like a gaping fish. Hermione guessed this is what she must have looked like when the professor had told her. "It was just recently discovered that my grandmother was a Veela. I have seven months to find my mate, there is a fourty percent chance that they are in another House and a twenty percent chance they're not even at Hogwarts, which means I would likely find them in Hogmeade..." she took a breath reminding herself to press forward, "I know it's true too because of how tired I've been after my birthday." Glancing at Ginny she slowly reached out a hand to wrap around the other girls hand, slightly unsure of this now that she had said it. She had to know something though, "You won't be mad at me if it's not Ron will you?"

"Mad?" The surprise washed away from Ginny's face and she seemed to regain control over her mouth. "I could never be mad at you Hermione. Who cares if my brother isn't your mate, I like having a friend that's alive. Besides, isn't this, kind of exciting?" She had a giddy expression now as she spoke growing increasingly excited. Hermione couldn't help but find that reaction slightly confusing. Not that she didn't appreciate that her friend wasn't mad at her. Just wondering what there could possibly be to be excited about. If she didn't find her mate in time-no stop it Hermione.

"I suppose it is but, I won't be here exactly anymore. If there in another house or not we'll have our own room because of the contact I need for energy and... other things." She could feel a blush rising to her cheeks at that implication. Well, mates did uh mate for lack of better word. And she thought her vocabulary was good? Dictionary reading time tomorrow then...

"That's fine. You need that since you are a Veela, even if only by a quarter." Apparently that last implication hadn't been lost on Ginny either as she was blushing as well. Hermione wondered for a moment if she was thinking of Harry in that moment before the red head started talking again, "I always found the part of a Veela finding it's mate romantic. Don't you?"

"I-" Hermione started, then smiled. "I suppose so. It is exciting." she admitted. Though she didn't know what to expect. Sighing she began twisting her fingers anxiously as she practically whispered, "Who do you think it is? I hope it's not a Slytherin. Definetly not Malfoy. Hopefully."

Ginny laughed and it sent a spark of hope through Hermione. "I doubt it. Your mate should be perfect for you, a good match." Ginny gave her a reasuring look while she squeezed her hand back. "It may be a Slytherin sure, but it definetly wouldn't be Malfoy or any of his pack. Ooo, there's that cute six year Ravenclaw boy too. Maybe it's him?"

It was her turn to laugh. A nice thing to hear rather than everything that this change would mean for her life. "It could be anyone is the thing. I haven't even started searching. I'm not sure how I should search. I've read up all about Veela but they never mentioned how a Veela knew who their mate was or how they found them." That was her main troubling thought. If you didn't have a way to find your mate then how did a Veela do it? That dead in seven months thing wasn't very reassuring. If she had more time, say years she was sure she wouldn't be so anxious about the whole ordeal.

There was a soft sigh across from her. "Honestly Hermione you just found out today no one expects you to know everything about this. To have found your mate yet. Let's just think for a moment. You mentioned-uh, some energy thing?"

She began to nod then blinked, visibly perking up as she ran the information through her mind, disecting it every which way. "If I get energy from my mate then when I touch them I should feel less tired and more-"

"Awake! Yes, that's the spirit!" Ginny cheered.

"But, I can't necessarily go around touching every boy in sight-" Ginny giggled at the slight innuendo and Hermione's face flushed. "That's not what I meant! Just like a, tap on the shoulder or something. Wherever there is skin for my fingers to brush against-"

"Or lips." Ginny said with a smirk shortly laughing at Hermione's expression. "I'm sorry. I think it's a great idea. When people are walking in the halls they touch hands accidently all the time. You'll find your mate within the month." That was true. Accidental.

Perfect solution.

Hermione smiled back at her. This was progress. Which was great. "It is simple, isn't it? I don't know why I was so worried before-" She stopped midsentaance as Ginny was giving her an odd look. "What?" she asked curiously.

"You have to tell Harry, and especially Ron."

"Oh, we can do that right now." she glanced down at her fingers still dancing together now seperate from Ginnys. "They can be my first test subjects." she muttered under her breath. Ugh, what a terrible start of such a simple plan.

Ginny's smile evaporated within the second. "Don't joke like that. If Harry ends up being your mate I'll-I... well it'll be bad for you."

Looking back up at Ginny she couldn't hold in her laugh and hurried to stop it and reassure her friend, "I've been brushing fingers with Harry since I got here and he needed me to check an essay. It's not him."

Ginny had begun to smile but then it disapeared again, realization dawning on her face. "Then you know it's not Ron either."

Hermione sighed. "No, it's not him." She felt bad about it. But there was nothing she could do about it. If the part of her didn't care for him then that was that. "Well, I suppose it's time for me to go down there and stomp his heart out."

"Hermione it's not your fault." Ginny insisted.

"I know that." Though she still felt bad about it. Not able to control one of the most important aspects of her life. It throughly sucked. "Come down with me?"

"Sure."

They hurried down the staircase to their friends. It took a minute for the two girls to convince them to go outside somewhere secluded but soon they were on their way to Hagrid's hut. The four sitting admist the garden waiting in silence for a moment.

"Ron," Hermione began.

"What? Is something wrong? You're using that serious voice of yours. I knew something was up." Ron interupted to go on a mini tirade.

She fought back her urge to laugh at this rather expected reaction. "Nothing's wrong. It's just that, I guess you could say we have to break up." Seeing he was about to start up again at those two little words Hermione quickly continued before she could be interupted, "When I went to McGonagoll's she told me I was a quarter Veela, and Ron, well, you're just not my mate."

"A Veela?" Ron sounded rather astounded. "You?"

"No, the tree behind you." she said with a roll of her eyes. Why did the fact that she was a Veela surprise everyone? She wasn't but ugly or something! "You understand what I'm saying, don't you?"

Ron frowned and was quite for awhile but ulimately nodded. "Just promise me something."

"What is it?" Hermione asked, now curious as to what he would want to make her promise about. Though she doubted it was anything to important on her end of the stick.

"When you find you're mate you'll tell me who it is."

Her face set into a scowl quickly. Of course. Nothing to do with her safety but his ego. Why would he ever think about anything else? "I'm not going to let you beat up my mate Ronald Weasely."

Ron opened his mouth and fumbled for words at her accusation. "I-I wouldn't-never-" Harry and Ginny began laughing. "Okay, fine. I won't beat up your mate." He looked to the ground dejected but his head shot back up quickly. "As long as it's not a Slytherin."

She sighed offering up a smile after a moment. "You have my full permission to punch my mate once if it's a Slytherin but you better hope he doesn't tell me about it and that I'm not around." Hermione was sure to make that threat clear in its intent.

"I'll be careful of that." Ron replied in all seriousness.

The group of friends begun laughing. In the back of her mind though Hermione remembered one major thing she hadn't told them yet. Not even Ginny. Best to knock multiple birds down with one stone. "You can't tell anybody about this. It's top secret. Okay? Swear it." she added quickly.

"I swear." Ron and Harry replied after her.

Hermione looked to Ginny who winked at her. "I also swear myself to secrecy." She smiled at this.

"Okay, we should get back to the common room then, Harry and Ron still have essays to finish I believe."

"Oh just the one for herbology is due tomorrow." Ron began to say calmly but then panic crept into his face and he got up quickly to walk away, Harry followed a second after and soon they were running back up the hill to the newly constructed bridge.

"He seemed to take that well." Hermione conceded.

"In the inside he's screaming like a little child, and I'll think he'll punch your mate wether they're a Slytherin or not." Ginny said with a little laugh stopping only when Hermione gave her a pointed look. "Just saying, he's freaking out inside. I'll make sure to go check on him and tell my brothers-if that's okay with you."

"It's fine." Hermione replied. It would be best if the Weasely family knew that she hadn't dumped Ron on purpose or meant to hurt him for that matter.

"They're good with secrets, plus they don't even go to Hogwarts anymore so it won't be a problem at all. Oh, I'll have to tell mom and dad too so they understand why you-"

"It's fine Ginny. I understand. Come on." she said and they went back to Gryfindor tower to get some rest.

The next morning Hermione woke up and hurriedly put on her robes and went down to breakfast. Sitting at the table she glanced around the room wondering who her mate could possibly be. It was both exciting and frightning, all the possibilities that she would slowly tick off until she found him. Not that there was much students to look at right now, she had come earlier then most. Her eyes trailed over the Slytherin table in a single glance seeing it was just a couple fifth years and Malfoy's friend Zabini. Her mind didn't dawdle on him though, skipping over to the Ravenclaw table where about twenty people were. Including the sixth year Ginny had spoken of. Out of all the Houses they were the most likely to be here early. Only a single person was at the Hufflepuff table and it was a girl.

Sighing Hermione looked back to her plate, picked up some toast and began spreading jam ontop of it with a knife. She bit into the piece of bread when done eyes wandering over to the Professors table. McGonagall was sitting there with Trelawny who's class she still found ridiculous. Divination, right. She had begun to roll her eyes as she remembered the time in third year but her gaze halted on the side door as it opened and Snape walked into the Great Hall with his cloak billowing around him in the typical fashion.

She took another bite of her toast, gaze on the Potions Professor as he sat down at the table nowhere near the other two. His head turned toward her as if sensing her looking at him. Hermione's mouth froze midbite when their eyes met. He had such a steely gaze, always looking somehow angry at the world. His eyes started to narrow at her...

"Good morning Hermione," a voice came from her left and she whipped her head around in surprise.

"Good morning Neville." she said almost choking as she coughed on a stray piece of bread in her mouth.

"You okay?" He asked leaning forward. Hermione made a small noise in the back of her throat. Neville grabbed a glass of water on the table and handed it to her, fingers brushing over her own outstretched hand for the glass. Taking it from him she took a quick gulp to force the bit of food down her throat. "Fine now?"

"Yes. Thanks." She picked up a napkin dabbing at her mouth lightly trying to forget that stupid incident. Then her eyes widened and she smiled. She hadn't felt anything when Neville touched her hand. One down, a few hundred more to go! Hmm, that a bit more depressing than she thought it would be.

The Great Hall had begun to fill up after Neville had come in. Ginny sat herself opposite of Hermione and leaned forward. "So?"

"I can't work that quickly." Hermione answered watching as Ginny just grinned wickedly back at her.

"Please don't tell me you've started some project for fun again." Seamus said as he sat down next to Neville.

"Of course not." The two girls replied innoccently.

"You're insane."

Hermione smirked and glanced up when Harry sat next to Ginny. "Morning Harry."

"Morning Hermione, Ginny. Ron isn't coming down, he's rather mad about yesterday." Figures.

"See? I told you how he would be." Ginny said with a smile. Having just bitten into her jam toast again Hermione just scrunched her nose up at her in response.

"What happened yesterday?" Neville asked glancing over at the two and smiling slightly to find the girls making faces at eachother. "Ron practically had steam coming out of his ears all night."

Swallowing down the bread and promptly sticking her tongue out at Ginny she turned to Neville to answer his question. "I-" She hesitated for a moment. "I broke up with him."

"Well that explains it." Seamus huffed.

Hermione ignored him then glanced at the jam infront of her. "You want any jam Seamus?" He glanced at her almost suspiciously then nodded. She handed it over being sure to do a casual brush against his hand as Neville leaned back to not get hit by the jar. Retracting her hand she glanced over at Ginny and smiled. She lifted a finger at the side of her plate at the questioning girl's gaze and wagged her finger back and forth. Nope. Wasn't Seamus, thankfully.

Breakfast was soon over and she took in a breath. Here came the real search for her mate. For a second she was overwhelmed by the fact that only four people were marked off her long list but she just grinned after a second. If she was lucky she would find him today. Getting up from the table she walked with Ginny and Harry to their first class seeing as Ron hadn't shown up for breakfast. That boy was going to regret it to and then they would have to listen to his stomach growl all day till lunch. She grabbed a pear quickly and stuffed it in her bag while passing by the table. There, now he couldn't complain as much and hopefully wouldn't stay upset at her for much longer.


	3. Chapter 2

She had taken her usual seat next to Harry and Ginny for Charms. Right before class started Ron rushed in practically collapsing onto his desk after he tripped over an extended foot in the walking lane, causing him to fall _up_ the stairs. The whole class had erupted in laughter at the sight.

Flitwick wasn't as nearly amused as his students but he certainly did chuckle a little at the scene. "Now, now class. Please divert your attention from Mr. Weasely and get out your wands to the ready." he paused to make sure everyone had their wands out then began, "Fire-Making Spell!"

"Incendio!" Hermione shouted with the rest of the class class, flicking their wands up at the pieces of paper that had appeared for them to torch with a flick of the Professor's wand.

"Tickling Charm!"

This time there was no school supplies randomly appearing. Everyone had turned to their partner and shouted, "Rictusempra!"  Immediately the class was filled with insane laughter as they all felt tickled all over. Hermione was set in a giggling fit. The first few minutes of class were always like this, going over spells from past years, and weeks of this own school year so everyone remembered them. In all honesty this had to be a favorite class for most students.

Flitwick gave them a few extra moments to calm down and do the counter-curse on their partner to stop the laughter. Once the giggles had died down he shouted, "Disarm-Counter!" flicking his wand from the left side of the classroom to the right.

The left shouted out the spell, "Expelliarmus!" The students on the right going, "Finite Incantatem!" Flashes of brightly colored light lit the room up before going out when the spells both accomplished their due.

The Professor continued with a few more charms before getting serious-or his version of the emotion anyways-and began teaching a new charm. Throughout the class Hermione's eyes flickered from one side of the class to the next wondering if her mate could be on the left or right side of the room. Mostly she was thinking about how she could put her materials into her pack fast and start down the stairs infront of Ginny, Ron, and Harry to brush fingers and wait to see if she felt a sudden surge of energy. She was slightly nervous as the class came to a close whether or not this really was the best course of action. What if her hand moved to fast and she sensed it but didn't know who's palm she had touched? A nervous fluttering was starting through her.

"I'll see you next class." Professor Flitwick announced bringing her back to the present. She blinked in shock that half the students were already gone. Now what? She gathered her stuff quickly and practically ran out of class into the thick of students in the hall. Slipping the strap of her book bag on her shoulder she dropped her hands to press agsinst her classmates as she made her way to the next class, fingers fluttering over bare skin and ignoring the dirty look a Slytherin shot at her.

She hoped she just had to touch them once and then the Veela side of her would instantly recognize her mate after that. It seemed logical to her. She comforted herself with the thoughts while heading into her Ancient Runes class.

After turning in her homework for that day she sat down silently next to another Gyfindor and a member of Ravenclaw. Their Professor, Bathsheba Babbling appeared a moment after the class was settled in from her office hidden by a simple stone wall that would open up to reveal a mass of light within. Hermione simply guessed that there were lots of windows inside to create it.

The students were asked to open their book, Magical Hieroglyphs and Logograms to page three hundred sixty so they could start going over the chapter given as homework, answer any questions, and state what they should remember from this chapter-simply put, notes-then continue on with the lesson plan for that day.

While the professor began a lecture Hermione placed her hand at the corner of her desk and simply waited. The Gryfindor boy next to her as usual placed his hand there but looked up quickly at her when he felt her hand instead of the wood. She pretended to be surprised at this and muttered a quick sorry before focusing back on what Babbling was talking about, her quil made quick streaks on the parchment easily taking notes without much concentration. Another down, she mentally made another tally in her collection.

Half way through class she was realizing her fault in the current plan, she didn't have a class with everyone in school that could be her potential mate. Just wondering the halls hoping to touch skin-to-skin would only work for so long.

She drifted through her Defense Against the Dark Arts class functioning only to perform the professors instructions with a defensive spell. Hence the name of her class. They went over a quick twenty minute lecture at the end before being assigned to do an essay as homework over the new spell that they had learned in class.

By the time she got to Arithmancy Hermione was sure she wouldn't know if she had found her mate today or not. She simply slumped into her seat, put a quil in her hand, a parchment down and started writing whatever the professor said not able to diffrentiate between necessary sentances and gibberish as her body started to ache. Even her bones felt stiff and it only made her more aware that she was yet to find her mate. If she had she wouldn't be feeling tired like this. Focusing back on class she listened to Professor Vector thinking what a boring teacher he seemed now that she was half asleep. When he finally stopped talking and the noise of chair scraping back against stone woke her from her half-stupor she followed the rest of them out of class heading back toward the Gryfindor Tower.

Trudging up the stairs to the common room she breezed past her friends, up a simple flight of stairs to the girls dorms, and then she was in her room. Her room with that blessed piece of furniture called a bed. Shrugging off her robe Hermione collapsed onto the bed and sunk into oblivion.

It seemed barely a minute later when a hand was on her shoulder shaking her awake.

"Hermione! Get up!" Ginny's voice filtered through to her slowly, repeating the words again and again.

She cracked an eye open to look at the girl standing next to her bed side. "Unless Voldemort is back please don't do this again." Seeing a smile appear on Ginny's face she smiled back before asking, "How long have I been asleep?" She was feeling somewhat refreshed from her nap. Sitting up she threw her legs over the side before stretching, raising her hands high above her head to feel her muscles tighten on her and she quickly lowered her hands trying to get them to relax. She felt stiff.

"About two and a half hours. I've been trying to wake you for ten minutes."

"So that's why I was suddenly on a boat." Hermione mumbled out before yawning, moving her hand to cover her mouth soon after the sound escaped from her. "Damn." she muttered, "This being tired is getting irritating fast."

"No kidding, when you came through that door everybody mistook you for a ghost at first, and then you didn't just float through the wall and they realized who you were." That sounded like how her classmates would react. Ever since she learned about being a Veela it was as if she got tired faster. It didn't really surprise her that people were starting to catch on that something was off with her.

"Perfect." She muttered rolled her shoulders back trying to get rid of the kink in her back. It didn't work and she just sighed at the dull ache that seemed to spread through her.

"So, how did today go?" Ginny asked, sitting down to perch on the edge of her bed.

"Fine, I got about thirty down." Ginny grimaced slightly at the number. Hermione had to admit it wasn't the best she could have done under the given circumstances. "Just been getting more tired recently." she tried to explain and frowned at just how tired her voice sounded.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Hey, I didn't expect you to find him right away so no one else in the knowing circle would either. It might take a little time, you know that. Still got plenty of time left and today isn't technically over. Plus, the reason I woke you up is dinner. You look like you need the fuel."

"How was Ron at lunch?" Hermione asked remembering how she had given the pear to Ginny after her first class since they hadn't shared another one for today. Tomorrow Ginny would be in most of her classes and have the same lunch period.

"He was fine. I gave him that pear, told him it was from you." Ginny sighed. "He looked real heartbroken, but he said that he doesn't blame you. Said you couldn't help the fact that you're grandma was a veela just wished you had both known earlier so it would have made it easier on him."

"Yeah, I wish I had known before too." she admitted. It would have given her more time and then she wouldn't have to deal with the lack of guilt she felt over Ron. No matter how hard she tried to be guilty over it she just couldn't. It seemed odd to her, not feeling bad about it after everything that had happened between them. It was almost as if she was more Veela than... herself. Like all she could find herself to care for was her mate and everything else could just go to hell.

"It doesn't matter now." Ginny said, interupting her thoughts. "What does matter is getting something in your stomach," a finger jabbed lightly at her ribs, "I think you should eat more than usual from now on to keep your energy level up."

"I consent." Hermione pushed up from the bed and slipped the outer robe back on after picking it up from the floor. "Let's go. I'm famished."

"You're sounding like Ron." Ginny smirked over at her.

She laughed softly. "Your brother doesn't need all that energy. I don't even know where so much food nutrition could possibly go."

"You got me there."

They started a conversation about the charms they had learned in, well, Charms class while walking to the Great Hall. Taking a seat at the Gryfindor table they started to dig into the food waiting ready for them, nice and warm. She pushed the thought of the house elves below working their buts off to prepare this. Hermione routinely had to remind herself that most house elves simply didn't want to be set free by their masters and found purpose working in the school. Besides, Dobby still got paid.

Ron was there but he didn't speak to her the whole time, unlike what he had told his sister he was probably still upset a bit. At least he understood that it wasn't because she didn't love him. Had loved him. Hermione began eating and it wasn't long until she felt full. She drained a glass of water to refresh herself after how fast she had eaten.

"How are you feeling?" Ginny asked from her the seat to her left.

"Like a plump pigeon." Hermione replied with a smile that gradually faded away. "I should go, I need to start on my homework."

"Of course, don't stay up too late this time." Ginny was grinning over at her and she rolled her eyes at her friend in response.

"I won't mother." Hermione grinned back at her as soon as the words left her mouth and got up from the table leaving her friends to finish without her. As she walked up the winding staircases her head spun momentarily when she looked up to see the stairs rearranging themselves again. Her mind was starting to pound at the way the world had turned around her. She grabbed for the chipped stone railing and steadied her breathing, looking away from what had caused this spell. All she wanted was to make this feeling go away. If only she could find her mate in the next few days, it would certainly leave a lot of time for her to make him fall in love with her.

Once her head had stopped spinning she continued up to the Gryfindor tower and went to her dorm to collect her things before going back to the common room. The noise in there should be enough to keep her awake while she got her homework done. That small two hour nap hadn't done much for her unfortunately.

/ ~ \

She stared ahead at the board, not even completely sure how she had gotten to class in the first place. Hermione barely remembered even going to breakfast and waffing down her usual toast and jam along with two hard boiled eggs and some bacon.

McGonagall was currently holding her wand to the board that held magically scrawled chalk going over a transfiguration spell that would make the spoon infront of them a tadpole, then a bowl, and finally a toad. The process of which she was explaining how and why this happened was rather interesting. Atleast enough to hold her attention, it wasn't that she was particularly tired this morning, simply full and felt like taking a long nap. Which might actually be the same thing as being tired in her case. The professor had stopped talking and everyone had begun doing the spell around her. Hermione picked up her own wand and repeated the words to perform the spell, "Ferramentum Rana." The spoon infront of her instantly began the three stage transfiguration spell.

Hearing the professor walk from table to table she glanced up when she heard McGonagall's voice next to the one she had seated herself at. "Very good, Miss Granger." The Professor leaned a bit closer, "How are you doing today?"

"Fine. Thank you." Hermione replied politely not having anything else to say on the matter. She didn't even have an idea of who her mate was.

The professor smiled at that answer and continued going around the room checking that everyone had done it right. In the case they didn't McGonagall told them what they were doing wrong. Soon though the class was starting to learn the next spell along with assigned reading in their textbooks.

Hermione had plenty of times to check other male students walking to her next class considering it was down in the dungeons. It was a long way down the hall along the courtyard, back into the castle, going all the way to the opposite corner from which the Gryfindor Tower stood, then she was going down a spiral staircase with no bars as students moved up and down the thin walkway. She was used to it now, but the first time she had to come down here all the way back in first year she had felt like she would fall right off the edge. The feeling was only increased back then because it seemed likely to happen any moment what with how many students were going up and down the steps at a time. If she had though it wouldn't have been a long fall since there was hardly any opening in the center of the winding staricase. She had measured it third year, aproximately fifteen inches across. Which had put her mind to ease about that.

Hermione continued down a hall when her feet landed beyond the last stair. She was aware of Ginny, Harry, Ron, and a quarter of the other Gryfindors in their seventh year all going to the same destination, Potions. A good amount of them had chosen not to take the class because it was either not part of their required learning, and they did not like the teacher. She didn't really see the problem though. Sure, Professor Snape was harsh on his pupils but all you had to do to pass was memorize ingredient lists, the instruction order in making potions, and follow what the board generally said. There was also notes for when he gave lectures but those were fewer and far inbetween this year so far.

She pushed open the creaky wooden door, stepping into the classroom and quickly found her seat near the back. Ginny sat to her left, followed by Harry. Ron sat to her right but turned to Neville instead of her.

Hermione ignored his childish behavior knowing it would stop in a few days time. She got out her quil and parchment ready for any sudden lecture or as her friends would say, 'heaven forbid a pop quiz'. Snape was notorious for it, and always at the exact moment when even not all star pupils had done the required reading. That was partially why she always read ahead of her classmates. The other reason being she liked to learn. She had finished with the actual class textbook and had started reading more on the subject in the library already. It had been a lot more interesting than the Quidditch talk the boys had on the train here.

The dungeon door banged shut signaling the arrival of the professor. "Stop doodling Miss Taveri." Snape snapped while passing by the Hufflepuff's desk. It seemed someone always got in trouble for something every beginning of class. Hermione mused for a moment how that was possible. Upon reaching the front of the room Snape turned around, surveying the class. "Wipe that grin off your face, Miss Granger." She blinked in surprise not even noticing that she had done that and quickly made the expression on her face neutral. Those cold eyes stopped on a pair of Ravenclaws and they turned away from looking at Hermione back to the front of the class. "Look at the board for todays instructions, and follow them, exactly." he said speaking slowly, in that usual clipped manner of his.

Hermione watched him turn around-waiting for the billowing cape effect-and go to his desk before looking at the board. She pulled out her cauldron and started writing the steps down on her parchment. Harry and Neville had went to gather the ingredients for the five of them. When Harry came back and handed hers over she was soon chopping, grinding, and slicing ingredients as the instructions she had written down said.

Her arm brushed against Ron as she stirred the mixture clockwise and he made a short snort like sound while clearly moving a couple inches out of range for when her elbow came back to the spot. Hermione frowned at him and the action but didn't let it take her attention away from what she was doing.

"Just ignore him." Ginny whispered to her.

"I am." Hermione replied quickly, retracting her hand from the brim of the cauldron to gather up some thiny sliced plant root before putting it in and starting to stir, this time counter clockwise. She kept her head down looking at her potion when she heard the inevitable sound of footsteps coming over. She should have kept her mouth shut instead of responding to Ginny.

"Weasely," Professor Snape marked his next target. "must I remind you again, not to talk in class?"

"No Professor." Ginny replied somehow the girl kept her voice from faltering unlike most students that were put in her situation.

"Then make sure it doesn't happen again." She saw him glance at her friend's cauldron from the corner of her eye. "Even the time instructions must be followed exactly as _written_ on the board." The footsteps continued to stop shortly infront of her own mixture. Hermione refrained from glancing up at him hoping he wasn't here to scold her as well. When he didn't say anything and moved towards Ron and Neville to start critiquing them she smiled softly. She hadn't done a single instruction wrong! That feeling always sent a sense of satisfaction through her.

Once done with what the potion required of her for this class she stuck it in a vial and copied down todays instructions from the board on a piece of parchment. She walked up to the front desk and left her vial there with the few others that had gotten done a few minutes early, but, it looked like not all were correct. That would be disapointing for those students. Hermione turned from the front of the classroom and made her way back to her seat as more students got up to set the finished product on the professor's desk.

In a few minutes they were dismissed and she did what she had done since yesterday, making sure to give her Slytherin classmates an extra tap to recheck. She went to lunch with a smile on her face brighter than the sun.

"You're too happy." Ginny stated.

"It wasn't any of them." Hermione replied gleefully. "That's half of their whole House down."

"Keep it up then."

Hermione smiled back at her for the encouraging words that made her grin even wider. "At this pace I'll find whoever it is in no time." It was a nice thought to have, and it certainly put her in a good mood even if she could already feel that familiar downward tug in her bones.


	4. Chapter 3

The wind tugged hard at her hat and Hermione's hand flew up to hold onto it so it wouldn't go flying away into the dark sky above her. Clouds covered the sky over the Quidditch pitch threatening to pour down rain over the players at any moment. It hadn't yet thankfully but she could see lightning flashing in the distance and inwardly cringed at the idea of being rained on, while standing. Especially since she kept shifting on her feet to keep them warm.

It was only September and yet today it felt like it was winter rather than fall. Another strong gust of wind ran through the crowd pracitcally throwing her off her feet to collapse. Hermione leaned back to stop such an occurence while tightning her grip on Ginny's arm who stood beside her. Both of their scarfs were flapping in the wind along with everyone else. Looking around the whole ring of the pitch it looked like a million flags were waving back at her.

Focusing her eyes back to the sky field as she called it she saw a quaffle flying through the air toward the Gryfindor side. Her free hand tightened as it got closer to the goal  and then a broom was infront of it in the blink of an eye and spun to whack the bludger away.

"Yeah!"

"Go Gryfindor!"

The people cheered around her, for the most part anyways. She could hear "Boo!"s mixed in with the rest.

She gathered up some of her energy and shouted out, "Nice one Ron!" Ginny cheered next to hear, waving a little flag as the quaffle was caught by one of the chasers, who spun in the air for a moment to evade a bludger hit their way by the opposing team; Slytherin.

Who were being rather vocal for this game; insults being hurtled through the air that could surely hit as hard as any bludger, the calling of names, green sparks flying from the tips of wands when their team scored a goal.

Hermione had begun to roll her eyes at the new barrage of name calling among other things started again; "Cheat!"

"How could you miss that?"

"Pummel them!"

"Damn muggle-born!"

Ugh. Even the older students were participating. Actually, she was sure the seventh, sixth, and fifth years were the most vocal about their disapointment having been in Slytherin longer and there was still quite a grudge between the two Houses.

"Oh!" Ginny screamed beside her, hands flying up to cover her mouth as her eyes widened.

Hermione looked quickly over to the part of the field her friend was gazing at and saw a Gryfindor chaser falling through the air to hit the dark dirt below on the field. She winced even as cheers came from Slytherin while the Gryfindors around her yelled angrily back, "That was a cheap shot!"

"Sore loser!" A Slytherin called back.

"Stupid scale hides!"

"Lazy lions!"

"Go and hide in your dungeons where you belong!"

"Can't! We're still getting your filthy blood off our floor!"

Her eye brows shot up. Was it just her or were the insults becoming even more creative these days? Thunder roared overhead just before the rain began to fall. It barely took a second before Hermione felt thoroughly soaked. It was pounding right on her hat along with her fingers which very much felt frozen to the bone. The cold air flowing over didn't help, or the way it tugged at her coat.

There was an extra gust when a Gryfindor chaser came flying past with the quaffle in her arms a Slytherin chaser moving in close from behind. There were shouts from both teams, "Go faster!" The response was immediate from the Slytherin, who swung over to the right side of the Gryfindor so she was trapped between him and the perimeter wall.

The crowd around Hermione seemed to still for a moment then cheered when the chaser on their team threw the quaffle over the Slytherin to another teammate who caught it. This was quickly followed by boos and called of fouls from the Gryfindors when the chaser fell shortly after from their broom when the Slytherin hit her into the wall. Hermione let out a shout of her own that was swallowed by the others, she just didn't have enough energy to scream too loudly.

The rain blinded her for a moment, lightning crackling down from the sky to light up the field as Harry and the Slytherin seeker chased a flicker of gold around the field that she quickly lost sight of. She leaned over onto Ginny squinting out where the game was being played wondering if her vision had just blurred or not.

For a moment she had seen dark blotches across her vision but she wasn't sure if it was from the after effects of lightning fading away or if it was because she was tired. 'Cause she knew she was tired and cold. It made her want to curl up and go to sleep even soaked as she was. So tired she didn't care that she was wet. That couldn't be a good sign.

"Ginny," her voice came out in a sort of croak, "I'm going back to the castle."

"What? Why?" her friend asked turning to look at her only to have sympathy written across her face afterwards. Did she really look that bad? "I'll come with you, make sure you get to the Tower."

Hermione shook her head quickly causing her world to do a one-eighty flip and she stopped that action quickly with a groan. "No, no." she said instead. "Stay. I'll get there. You know me, I'm stubborn."

"But-"

"No. Stay and support Ron and Harry in my place. When you get back you can tell me all about it. I think I'll sleep for a bit then wake up and stuff my face with chocolates and caffeinated beverages. That should help, don't you think?"

Ginny laughed slightly at the food choice as they both knew it wasn't something Hermione would eat together under normal circumstances. "If you're completely positive. But," a hand reached out for her shoulder as Hermione started to turn away and she glanced back over at Ginny to hear her finish speaking, "don't push away any help if someone else offers. I don't care who it is. You take it okay?" Ginny gave a little smile. "You kinda look awful so hurry there and I'll check on you first thing."

"Deal." Hermione said to seal it before pushing through the crowd muttering an, "Excuse me." every other second. Slowly but surely she was making her way through and using any chance she could to 'accidentally' press her cold fingers against any exposed skin.

One person jumped when her skin met hers and she mumbled out a quick apology seeing the light of anger die in their eyes when they spotted her and then just look away. Hermione hunched her shoulders slightly feeling rather guilty for making the person feel guilty. She didn't mean to but she had to test anyone she could that was of the opposite gender. Any of them could be her mate. This was simply a too important oppurtunity to miss. It was the main reason that she hadn't brought gloves with her. Everyone came to Quidditch games, every single student. It was her chance to knock off as many people as she could and maybe even feel that rush of energy that would signify that she had met her mate. Which was something she rather wanted to happen as soon as possible.

Her feet slipped beneath her one the wet wood and she went crashing to the floor oddly not knocking anyone else over when she fell. Though that was probably for the best.

"Stupid Mudblood." she could hear the mutter clearly even with thunder roaring overhead and the wind whipping through the perimeter tower she was passing through currently. Turning she tried to spot who had spoken but no one was looking over at her. With a huff she got up slowly, leaning up against the wall as she did so to help herself.

Now back on her feet she started forward again when someone pushed against her shoulder sending her toppling back to the floor. Laughter burst around her and she scowled. Damn Slytherins.

"What's the matter Gryfindork?"

Gosh, she hadn't heard that paticular insult in forever it seemed. "How very mature of you." she retorted, her words losing the intended bite when they came out in a hollow hiss. There was just an increase in laughter and she pushed the sound from her mind. Just ignore it she told herself even though she felt anger rising through her. Normally such an emotion would make her feel more awake but right now it just felt draining. Pushing herself up again for the second time in less than a minute she cursed when she saw a shadow on the ground approach.

A hand gripped her shoulder and yanked her up so hard she would have cried out in pain if she could find the energy to waste on such a response. "Get up and get out of here." the persons voice snapped at her and she was surprised to recognize it as Malfoys. Looking up her gaze met his silver orbs. Normally she would snap back at him but right now wasn't the right time and she wasn't sure she could have gotten the words out anyways. So she just gave a small nod and brushed past him, leaning slightly when a person to her left shifted. There was a growl next to her ear, "Move it, Granger."

She scowled at the words, looking out across that last stretch in the open storm with a grimace. Why did it have to rain today? It made her want to stamp her feet like a little child. Even the Veela in her was growling inwardly at the storm as if frustrated at it. She wondered for a moment. Could she? It wasn't what the deal had been about but-

Hermione looked over at Malfoy to see he was still glaring at her. She was aware that it was probably because she was still leaning against him to keep herself up but outside it was even more windy than in here so... "Malfoy," she started seeing a flash of anger in his eyes at her using even his last name she quickly continued. "I just need to get to the other tower closer to the school and then I'll be out of your hair. Just help me get across... please." She blinked for a moment when dark spots crowded her vision again and leaned further onto him as she took in a gulp of cold air than burned its way down to settle in her lungs. The cold air was just so damn bitter.

"There's a Hufflepuff just out the door that would be too glad to hel-Hey!" The sudden shout echoed in her ears even as all other sounds drowned out and she could feel herself sinking into a sea of black. She was dimly aware of being engulfed in a pair of arms and the feel of her body swaying as a voice above her ordered people to move and get the bloody hell out of the way. If she was fully conscious she would have laughed at the word choice. As it was the somewhat rocking of her body just further lulled her into sleep.

There was noise above her. No, voices. Her eyelids flickered but she couldn't bring herself to open them yet and instead listened. She recognized McGonagall at once but it took her a moment to realize the other was Madam Pomfrey. So then... she was in the hospital wing.

"She doesn't appear to be sick. Just fell over from over-exhaustion." Ahh, that must be Pomfrey. "I've noticed her looking tired in the halls of late. That and being exposed to that kind of weather makes it easier for one to get sick. I would suggest that she take something to help prevent that from happening. I've already given her a dose when Draco brought her in and questioned him about her condition but he just said that she had suddenly collapsed while at the Quidditch game." There was a slight pause. "I wanted to ask you though Minerva, what the child was doing around all those Slytherins. And why does she look so tired?"

There was a moment of silence then she heard the sound of a curtain being drawn around her bed and the footsteps of the two getting closer before a spell was spoken to stop people from beyond the curtain to hear any noise. Hermione had to stop herself from crinkling her brow as a telling sign that she was awake not wanting to alert the two especially since she thought she knew what her Professor was about to tell Madam Pomfrey.

"I just got news a few days ago that Miss Granger's grandmother was a Veela. Making her a Quarter-Veela. I've told the Headmistress but otherwise didn't want to announce it. She's already been through enough with the war and it's not effecting anyone around her so after speaking with Kathlyn we agreed it was just on a need to know basis. I'm sure Granger has already told her friends as well, which is fine. But I don't really see a reason for the whole school to know."

The silence above her seemed to stretch for a moment. "Well that explains quite a lot. She looked pale as a ghost back on Thursday walking through the halls. I take it she hasn't found her mate yet?"

"No. Not yet. She hasn't told my anything about it anyways and I don't see why she wouldn't. When she does I'll have to my preporations of some kind no matter what house they're in. Though I would prefer her mate be my house just because it would be easier and less chance of any rumor spreading that she was a Veela." There was a sigh. "She has about seven months to find him. Whoever he is." A snort. "I wish this was easier on her just for her sake."

"That would be preferable in the case of any Veela. It's harder for the full and even some half ones since they attract the whole male populace. She's lucky she doesn't have that problem or you would have to announce it."

"I know. That's why I'm glad she's been given that small mercy."

Deciding she had heard enough of the paper doting over her and further explaining qualities of Veela that she had previously wondered why she didn't have she opened her eyes to see the two standing next to her bedside. "Professor," she muttered.

"Oh you're awake now dear." Pomfrey said being the first to see her 'awake'. "Let me go get you some potions for the day."

"Day?" Hermione mumbled forcing her voice to raise itself further. Still wasn't to her normal tone though.

"Yes, you slept here all night after that Quidditch match. Now I'll just be a moment." Pushing through the curtains Pomfrey left in a hurry.

She watched as McGonagall turned to face her and smiled. "Good to see you've recovered. I would suggest staying inside on cold days from now on until you've found your mate." Hermione panicked slightly inside when she mentioned her mate again just after the matron had left. "Don't worry, the spell is still in effect. Have you found anything?"

She relaxed back into the bed and had begun to shake her head but stopped, remembering what had happened all the other times she did that before since she knew what she was. "No. Not yet. I've been looking but so far nothing. I saw the game as an oppurtunity to look and I was able to strike a few more off for it but it wasn't all that beneficiary." Unfortunately. She had wished she knew more but she didn't.

"I was thinking maybe Malfoy was him when he carried you into here."

At the Professor's words her eyes went wide. "Oh, no! He's not. He isn't. None of them are." At McGonagall's quirked eyebrow she quickly went on to explain, "Not in the Slytherin House. I've checked. Multiple times. It's no one from there. I don't think it's a Hufflepuff either but I have some more to check and there's still some in Gryfindor and most of Ravenclaw." It was funny, even though she had classes with those last ones she had had trouble with accidentally touching any of them. She had to be careful to not make it seem like she was coming on to anyone afterall. Just looking for her mate. That was her priority right now. That and homework.

"Well, that's good to hear. That you're making progress that is. Make sure to come and tell me when you figure it out."

"I will." she said quickly just before Pomfrey came back and started making her drink some potions down.

"This should keep you from falling down for atleast a few days. If you ever feel like something like that is going to happen again and you're closer to here than your House commons I want you to come here."

"Okay." she managed to get out before having to start drinking down the potions.


	5. Chapter 4

She sat next to the windowsill, looking down into the courtyard from the room she had been assigned back in first year overlooked. Hermione sighed, pressing her face against the stone gazing out as raindrops hit the pane of glass to run down one by one.

Optimism wasn't the key ingredient to finding her mate it seemed, and quite honestly she was a bit low on it. Perhaps her mate was in Hogsmeade after all. She had found a book detailing a Veela and how they would always find their mate. She wasn't sure about that 'always' though when she first picked it up in the library and started reading. Upon further inspection though it was mostly true. The Veela would find her mate in everyday places she went to; work, school, or hung out almost as a general rule. The catch was that not all the mates returned the affections causing the Veela to die seven days after being rejected by heartbreak if the mate didn't have a change in heart.

Now that was depressing. She blew softly on the glass pane and reached out with a finger to draw a heart before going on to slash it into ribbons. The way hers would end up if her mate rejected her. Well, actually probably just stop beating rather than getting all morbid.

This bit of information had completely rewired her way of looking at the situation. She had months so there really was no point in telling her mate about the Veela part and asking for them to essentially be together forever before she was completely sure they loved her. If not then she could die of heartbreak. Which she really didn't look forward to. Maybe it'll be a secret admirer or someone who already loves her. It would make this a lot easier. Still, she had a problem.

It had been two weeks since McGonagall told her the news and she hadn't come across her mate.

After going to Care of Magical Creatures last week and effectively cancelling all classmates in the course she had felt even more elated then when she had left Potions earlier that day. From that time on she continued to do her trick until she had ruled out everybody in her classes plus the occasional people she brushed by in the hall. Her Veela side seemed to keep track of who was ticked off the list as well which was anice bonus. Though it would growl in disaproval when she went to sit with her friends. That part of her seemed even more anxious to find her mate than her entire self sometimes.

She had gone to the library that weekend not only to research more into the Veela side of things but to learn more, which she did.

McGonagall had said it in more simple words, 'wanting to defend your mate whether they are right or wrong'. In reality it was a bit more complicated than just that. Once she found her mate whether she told him of the circumstances or not she would develop the drive to for one; get rid of any competition, stick up for him when someone said the smallest thing against him, and, of course, become territorial of her mate. Might as well throw a dragon in there to add to her growing list of non-normal activites she would begin to experience.

Out of all the things she had read though, she was mostly concerned about how once finding her mate, and not telling them immediately that she was a Veela her energy levels would decrease even further. Which meant while she was trying to make the guy love her she would continuously have to be touchy feely the whole time before announcing it to him. That, or just eat a lot of food and she already ate quite a bit now.

If 

that time came. In the short span of two weeks she had gone completely all out in her search. She had knocked the Houses Slytherin and Gryfindor off her list for good. There was only around fifty in Hufflepuff she still needed to check and a mere dozen from Ravenclaw. Sixty two students left. She should be happy about this but it made her gut twist hard. What if none of them were her mate? Then what was she suppose to do?

Go to Hogsmeade and look there would have to be her first option but if that ended up being fruitless then she would be back at square one. There was also the slim chance that her mate was on the other side of the world if she couldn't find him around here.

The door to the room opened slowly. "Hermione?" Ginny's voice filtered in as her friend softly closed the heavy piece of wood back behind her before advancing to her friend. "Why don't you come down and hang with us for the rest of the day? George and Fred sent a letter earlier saying how they were going to sneak in for a surprise visit."

She turned around at hearing her friend so close and Ginny gave a small gasp. Hermione's eyes were red and puffy from crying an hour earlier still, and there were thin trails of tears that stained her cheeks. To top it off she looked rather pale. She had already seen her reflection in the window so she couldn't say this reaction from her friend shocked her too much. "Oh, Fred and George huh? I can check them too then, like a metal detector." Her throat was scratchy as she spoke and it came through in her words.

"A what?" Ginny asked confused by the muggle world refrence and yet at the same time looking at her with despair written all over her face. Maybe she looked more horrible to her than she had previously thought.

"Nevermind." Hermione muttered with a sigh and started turning back to her window that was crying for her now that she couldn't anymore.

"Umm excuse me," Ginny poked her hard in the shoulder. "That wasn't a request earlier that was an order. You'll find you're mate. I know you will. So stop being glum and have fun with your friends okay? We need to celebrate how fast you're going through the school somehow."

Hermione brightened at the aspect of it being a sort of celebration. Anything to stop this downpour that soured her mood. "Will there be cake?' she asked, hopeful. It would give her a sugar rush and she had become addicted to it lately. Keeping little chocolates in her school bag to pop in her mouth during class when she could get away with it.

"Anything for the Veela." Ginny replied with a grin.

"Ginny!" Hermione shout-whispered. "I told you not to call me that, even in the dorms. I don't want any chance of this getting out." Even McGonagall had agreed with that. It wasn't something she needed, the whole school talking about her new development behind her back, teasing her or just being a nuisance.

"Calm down there." Hermione took a breath as Ginny instructed. "Now, come on. It's just going to be Harry, Ron, and the twins down there everybody else is wandering the castle at this time of day even if it is raining."

She blew out the air she had sucked in a second later. "You checked?" She wanted to know for sure. Needed to.

"I touched everyone where skin wasn't visible." Ginny said with a smile. Hermione gave her a stop-with-the-innuendos look causing her friend to laugh. "Move it." Ginny grabbed her arm, pulling her from the spot and they went down to the commons. Hermione hurrying to brush the traces of tears from her face as they walked with the sleeve of her robe and disentangle stray strands of hair.

"There she is!" Fred's voice seemed to echo around the large room. "Ginny told us all what happened in letters and gave us updates."

"So, out of this sixty two batch left. Who are you hoping it will be, and who do you not want it to be?" George said from his seat on the table.

"I.. don't really know. I haven't thought about it." Hermione said as she walked towards the group and sat down on a cushioned chair. She had been more worried about finding her mate recently rather than worrying about who it was.

"It'll probably be the last person you expect."

"Or a toad." Fred added.

Ginny scowled from her seat next to Harry. "Stop being ridiculous. Don't listen to them Hermione."

"It could be someone I don't expect though." She mused before leaning slightly forward. "Okay, hands out you two." The Weasly twins each extended a hand and she rested a palm in both. After waiting a few seconds she shook her head and slumped back in her seat with a sigh. "I should go and check the last few instead of sitting here. Maybe I'll come back bouncing with energy even." It was a happy thought and she rather liked that than the depressing ones currently filling her mind.

"Then we could have a real celebration." Geroge said. "Invite everyone back to the dorm without telling them what it's about and just go wild!" Hermione laughed at that. It was refreshing to have these two around again they always kept everything interesting plus they did throw the best parties.

"Don't you still have classes today?" Fred asked.

Hermione nodded. "McGonagall saw me this morning at breakfast and pulled me aside to tell me to go get some more sleep and that eating pounds of food simply wasn't going to cut it today. So, she cut me from her class for today."

"She was a wreck this morning."

"Thank you Ronald. That makes me feel _sooo_ much better." She made sure to drag out the two letter word while glaring playfully at him.

"What about you three then?" George leaned forward looking from Harry, Ron, to Ginny. "You have her class to right?"

"I convinced McGonagall to let me stay with Hermione to make sure she went to her other classes and if she wasn't in condition to go that I would tell her other Professors about it and attend that class by myself." Ginny said with a smile.

Harry had a very differrent answer though. "Me and Ron used some gum taffies to get out of class." He had a little smirk on his face while he told the twins.

"Nice!" Fred patted him on the back.

Hermione smiled softly at the twins before looking over at their sister. "I'm going to go get my stuff for Potions. Want to come Ginny or you staying here with the ditchers?"

"Owch!" Fred exclaimed with a laugh.

Ginny giggled but got up, "I think I'll go to class. I don't have homework I need to catch up on." she gave Harry a meaningful glance to which he smiled awkwardly.

After getting their things and telling the boys bye as they left the commons they headed for the dungeons.

Ginny sat quitely to her left not making a single sound throughout class while they finished up a potion from last class. Her friend had been careful-and quite-during class ever since Professor Snape had scolded her almost two week ago for talking.

The whole process of the current potion had gone on for three whole class sessions. Hermione was putting her finished potion into a vial when the room rang with a loud boom. Everyone turned to look at the direction of the explosion and saw the poor unfortunate soul of a Hufflepuff covered in soot start to get yelled at.

"What are you doing? It says to chop the Drakolean skin not twist it. Your potion is all wrong, and it shouldn't have blown up! Tell me what you added to this _exactly_ , the Frivoli Cuptar does not have any explosive properties in it." The Hufflepuff opened his mouth to start listing ingredients only to cough soot onto the Professor's robes. Hermione couldn't stop the giggle from coming out until a second after the sound had passed her lips. Professor Snape turned to look at her coldly, "You can stay after class Miss Granger and help Gilligan clean this mess up." He turned his attention to the rest of the class. "I expect the rest of you to have your potion finished and on my desk in the next two minutes."

The class jumped into motion with getting the last element of their potions done or vialing them to set on his desk before hurrying out the door. "Sorry," Ginny hissed to Hermione after coming back from the front desk having put her own vial on it. "I'm in enough trouble as it is with him and I need to take this time to study for Charms. See you tonight." The red haired girl was out of there before Hermione could even say wait much less Quidditch-as Madam Hooch favored during first year.

She bit her lip then started cleaning down her own desk before going over to help the Hufflepuff with his mess. Atleast there wasn't another class coming in anytime soon. She wouldn't feel the need to rush through it. That would probably have unsatisfactory results.

"Don't use your wands." The Professor said when the Hufflepuff was about to do a cleaning spell. "You screwed up the potion from the beginning Gilligan and you will clean it up no matter how much time it takes."

The Hufflepuff gawked at him. "I have class in thirty minutes Professor-"

"Then you better get working." Professor Snape snapped sounding irritated at the student for having talked back.

Hermione remained silent throughout this whole exchange instead opting to grab a cloth and bucket of water to start scrubbing at the desk. The layer of soot was quite impressive for a non-explosive potion, an inch think atleast. Seamus would have been proud of the Hufflepuff, and probably would have asked to challenge him if he still took the class. Hermione smiled a bit at the private thought.

"You may leave, Gilligan." Snape ordered two seconds after this action, and fifteen minutes after having spoken with the Hufflepuff about finishing the task.

Gilligan didn't bother to question the sudden change just put his soot covered cloth in a bucket and went running out into the daylight as if a banshee was on his heels.

Hermione frowned and looked over at the Professor just as he started to turn back to his work. "Professor, can I-"

"No spells, Miss Granger."

With a sigh she turned back to the task at hand. Really? Just because she had smiled she had to do this by herself now? What a joke.

Once she cleared up a foot of space on the desk she hopped onto it setting the bucket on a seat nearby. Leaning over with the cloth she scrubbed at the wood to collected the soot and then put it in the bucket to rinse what she could off. Hermione repeated this action countless times until her eyelids fluttered. She pinched her arm quickly to keep herself awake since she only had one small spot left to go.

This was completely counter-productive she should be out there looking for her mate but she was stuck in here and her muscles were turning sluggish on her for not going to lunch. Dropping the cloth into the bucket for the last time with a small splash she really felt like just stretching out on the clean desk and going to sleep. Not the most comfortable place but it was cleaner than the other desks after the scrubbing she had given it.

Instead she picked up the bucket and slipped off of the desk going over to the sinks she dumped the soot filled water in and watched it swirl down into the drain. Setting the bucket down she went back to get the one the Hufflepuff had left and emptied it as well putting it next to the one she had used off to the side of the sinks where she had orginally found it.

"It's done Professor." Hermione said looking over at him to see Snape was still at his desk going over a stack of papers. She guessed it was the essays that had been turned in at the beginning of class about another herb and it's properties.

"You still have a potions vial for me." he said without looking up from his desk.

Oh, that was right. She had forgotten to put it on his desk earlier. She turned and got the vial and walked up the five stairs of the raised platform to get to his desk. The simple task left her about ready to collapse. She leaned against the desk to stop from falling over and stretched her hand out to him. He reached out to take it from her asking something but she didn't hear it as her heart had started to pound in her ears telling her she was about to passout like she had on Sunday while watching the Quidditch match in the thundering storm.

She felt a brush against her fingers and the feeling passed instantly. The urge to crawl in bed for a quick ten minute nap before her next class like usual wasn't there anymore. Her whole body felt alive as if zapped by a power cord. At first she couldn't move when the feeling coursed through her but a voice drew her back to the present.

"Miss Granger?"

Hermione blinked up at her Potions Professor somehow managing to hide the shock from her face. "Y-yes?"

"If you're sick you should go to the infirmary." As he talked she found her eyes drawn to his lips that seemed to be in a permanent scowl all the time. Oh, she just wanted to lean forward and capture them in hers, push her tongue past them and into his mouth-No! Yes, whispered her Veela side coaxing her on. She dug her fingers into the table to stop herself from moving toward him, her mate, and doing something drastic.

"I'm fine. Just been having a little sickness all week, it comes and goes." she chattered quickly, "I just remembered I was suppose to tutor a first year. Bye S-Professor!" She spoke in a rush before spinning around, racing toward her desk to get her things and get out, OUT! Of that room. She ran down the hall hearing the door bang shut behind her. Her feet pounded up the stairs and she was thankful that no one was over on this side of the castle at this time so she could made it to the surface quickly. Upon leaving the staircase she leaned against the nearest wall breathing heavily. She was surprised at how fast she had moved up here, after trudging around the castle for the last two weeks but then again...

Severus Snape was her mate! And she had almost kissed him back there! Which in any other case she was sure would have her suspended but since she was a Veela it would simply be like, 'Surprise! I'm a Veela and you're my mate! Yeah, I'm shocked as well. So anyway can I snog you now?'

It made perfect sense now as to why none of the male students had been her mate after all that searching. He hadn't been a student! Looking in the wrong place that's what had happened but... how was she supposed to break this news to her Potions Professor?

Okay, slow down Hermione Jean Granger. You don't want to tell him yet because then the seven day rule comes into effect and you're going to need a lot more time then seven days to get Severus to fall in love with you. Wait. How was she supposed to get him to fall in love with her? With another student it was very simple to go up to them and ask them out, go on dates, gradually form a relationship form. She knew Severus was a good teacher and stuck to the rules and one of those rules was not dating students. Even though she was of age.

Why did her life always have to get so complicated?

Sighing she smiled a moment later not able to suppress it any longer. She didn't have to search any more! Hermione launched herself from the wall and went running down the hall to her next class.

Her day seemed to fly by in the blink of an eye. Soon she found herself back up in her room having gone tearing up the stairs past the rather startled students below in the commons barely a minute ago. The door swung open swiftly then closed after she had already entered and she soon felt arms wrap around her as Ginny started babbling,

"Oh my god! You found him didn't you? Today! I told you you would didn't I?" Ginny bounced around while still holding onto Hermione causing the Quarter-Veela to begin laughing. "I heard the Patil twins talking about how you were showing off again in class and knew you must be feeling better than usual. Then with the way you came streaming in here like that I just knew you had done it! Now," Ginny got ahold of Hermione's shoulders in the midst of her spinning and sat her down on the bed. "who is it?" The girl's face was bright and eagerly waiting for a name to pass Hermione's lips.

She just looked up at Ginny for a second. "Promise me you won't tell anyone, and I mean _anyone_ about what I am about to say." Ginny's bouncing on the heels of her feet came to a slow stop. "Not Ron, Harry, your family, _nobody_." This definitely wasn't something she needed to get out. More so even than the fact that she was a Veela.

"I promise." Ginny sat down on the Veela's bed next to Hermione, "But how come? What's wrong with this Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff guy?"

"Um, well, one it's not a Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff." Hermione began to have second thoughts about telling even Ginny about who it was. She hadn't expected this turn of events. "He's a Slytherin."

"What? But I thought you checked all of them. Oh, is the reason you don't want me to tell the others because he's in fifth year? What's the limit on the year they can be anyways?" Ginny questioned as an afterthought gazing out toward the window.

It would have been a good one for her to look up had she not already found her mate. "No it's nothing like that." Hermione said quickly, "It's probably seventeen so sixth year." It seemed an accurate guess to her. The main issue was the opposite of that matter anyways. She realized then that she didn't even know exactly how old her mate was. Just another thing she would need to find out. Would he answer her question if she asked? She wasn't entirely sure about that.

"So who did you double pat?"

"Pat?" She was confused by Ginny's question for a moment as she was pulled from her thoughts. "Oh, it's... my mate,"  Hermione found herself having a hard time getting the words out. "He, my mate is Sss-" she fought herself on what to call him like she had back in the classroom. Atleast she hadn't given in to calling him something other than Professor that would have been embarrassing. Her tongue finally worked and settled on what she hadn't let out before. "Severus."


	6. Chapter 5

Ginny's mouth opened and closed repeatedly like a fish out of water. She become quite for a few seconds then asked, "Are you sure?" her voice soft as if she didn't believe what name had just came out of her friend's mouth with the word mate attached to it.

Hermione nodded her head before beginning to speak. "Positive. After all that cleaning I had to do after he dismissed Gilligan, gosh Gin I was more tired then I can ever remember being. I had forgotten to put my potions vial on the desk and he asked me to bring it to him. So I went up to the desk, and you know how there's steps? It felt like a million to me when I got to the desk I felt about ready to pass out. Severus just put his hand out for me to put the vial in so I did, and my fingers just brushed his open palm and-wham! I just suddenly had all this energy flowing into me. It's unmistakable. He's my mate I can feel my bones calling out for him right now."

Ginny was still staring at her after she told her everything to confirm that it was true. "W-well, what did he do?"

"What?" Hermione asked confused as to what was being asked.

Ginny's eyes widened further. "You didn't tell him? And he didn't like, feel anything?"

"No, the books say only the Veela feels it. The mate is oblivious to the whole energy sapping thing unless they are told, and even then they don't feel any change. Besides, Ginny why on earth would I tell him? I mean, I looked sick he would have written it off as some weird delusion or something."

"That's..." Ginny bit her lip after a moment gnawing at it, apparently thinking. With a sigh and shrug of her shoulders she looked defeated. "Yeah, he probably would." The ginger was silent for a solid minute before exploding. "I just can't believe it! I-it's," she threw her hands up in the air. "It's Severus Snape. I mean he's your teacher! Is it even possible for these things to happen?" She jumped up from the bed and started pacing infront of Hermione, who was thinking her friend was getting a little to worked up about it when she was the one who would be with him for the rest of her life.

"McGonagall didn't mention any cases where the Veela ended up being a mate with a Professor." Hermione said softly, "Just students from other houses." That was probably because there wasn't any. Which meant she was going into this blind. No prior experience to help her. This _sucked_.

Ginny stopped infront of her for a moment. "So you don't even have another situation to go off of? To figure out how to go around doing this?" Hermione shook her head. "W-what if he says no even when you don't look all sick?" Hermione cringed back into her bed not wanting to think about the cursed seven day rule. Ginny dropped next to her on the bed. "I don't want you to go away Hermione." She got up a second later, pacing again. "Why couldn't your Veela pick someone more... I don't know simpler to date and actually get to know?"

"It's not like I decided this Ginny."

"I know! Which is why it's so unfair! I mean, have you ever seen Snape smile? Even once? And you have to spend the rest of your life with the slime ball. I can't think of a more miserable person to be with-" Ginny stopped abruptly in the middle of her tirade when a hand clamped around her wrist and twisted so she fell on the bed next to the Veela.

Hermione had turned to face her as she fell, hand still wrapped firmly around Ginny's wrist. A soft growl had filled her chest, traveling up to her throat to slip between bared teeth as she glared down at the girl with a look that would have made even a basilisk slither away in terror. "That's my mate you're talking about Ginny. You don't know him or who he is behind being your professor, and neither do I. So," she bit out the word in a sort of bark. "don't you go presuming what he is or isn't."

Ginny blinked up at her, true fear in her eyes. She nodded her head quickly. "I'm sorry I just got so worked up. Could you let go of me, please?"

Her words seemed to snap Hermione out of it and she let go of her wrist backing up against the headboard staring at her friend in realizing the Veela in her still wanted to tear the girl to shreds for what she said about her mate. "I-Ginny, I didn't mean too,"

"It's okay. You told me before and so did McGonagall. She figured you would confess everything to me first and she told me to choose my words carefully when speaking about your mate once you knew who it was. I should've been more tactful." She was silent, and with Hermione not speaking back it took a few moments befor Ginny began to speak again, "I just wish it would have been easier on you." Hermione just nodded at her friend's words. "It's just, what about you?"

"Me?" Hermione questioned finally looking up from her knees to look into her friend's eyes. "What about me?"

Ginny sighed causing Hermione to frown and wonder what she could possibly have to tell her. "I mean you." She had figured as much and urged Ginny on with a slight nod of her head. "Your mate has to love you so they can say yes, so obviously you have to make Severus fall for you, but, that's just one side of the equation. He's years your senior. Are... are you even attracted to him? Would you be able to do more than just manipulate him into liking you? It's unfair to him." Hermione was still looking at her confused. "The Veela is a loving creature but it still takes time to get to that point in a relationship. I don't want to see you being miserable either. So, Hermione, I don't think the issue here is just getting him to love you. you have to feel the same way too." Ginny leaned forward, resting a hand on Hermione's knee which she had an immediate urge to shake off. Quiet Veela! She wanted to hear what her friend had to say without her vision going red. Damn could that side of her hold a grudge. "Can you love him the way he deserves to be loved? Make him... less miserable?"

The question kept repeating in her head well into the night. She hadn't thought about it. Quite honestly she hadn't wanted to think about it even before she knew who her mate was. She knew she wasn't the sort to get into a one-sided relationship. It wasn't good for either party. Her fingers curled into her palm. The first one wasn't an issue. A Veela was always attracted to her mate physically and, if she was being honest with herself, she had liked certain aspects about him even before this. He was devoted to his craft and she admired him for that. Unlike most students she had no problem with the way he taught them. Those were all mental things though rather than physical. She did remember marveling at the color of his eyes the first time she had seen them, but that went away the moment he looked at her with a hard gaze back in first year telling her, 'put your hand down you silly girl'.

She bit her lip, staring at Ginny's bed across from hers. Those words from long ago had crushed her. If it wasn't for those syllables she may have grown to have a crush on him, and his cape, and his shirt with the many buttons. Even now she still wondered how he could deal with that shirt in the morning. It had to make getting dressed in the morning take forever. She licked at her lips. Getting dressed. Undressing...

Hermione sat up quickly and shook her head to chase the thoughts out of her mind. After a moment she sighed and got up out of bed to begin changing back into her school robes. Slipping her feet into a pair of plain shoes she made her way out of the dorms down into the commons not able to stay there anymore especially when she was this restless. It hadn't been a problem for so long that she felt she no longer knew how to deal with it. She supposed it was partly because she had gotten the burst of energy from Severus earlier that day. With a glance at the clock she confirmed this. It was still that day, just a few minutes until it became the next though. Then her energy would start to drain again.

Hermione opened the door to which the Fat Lady stirred just as she got out of the commons and closed it.

"What are you doing up Miss Granger?" the portrait asked.

"I couldn't sleep. I'm just going out for a quick walk to clear my head. I'll be back though." Hermione replied hoping the portrait woman wouldn't demand her to get back into the house and that it was too late to be wondering the corridors at this time.

So she was pleasantly surprised when the Fat Lady nodded. "You go take that walk. It's good to see you looking like your old self again today. Just don't get caught by Filch."

"I won't." Hermione promised knowing the portait was talking about not letting house points be deducted for this little outing. "I'll see you in the morning." she said with a soft smile before turning around and walking up the stairs.

She had no particular destination in mind and the library was closed, not to mention a more frequented place by Filch and his cat, Mrs. Norris. Her mind spun as she got out her wand and put a muffling charm on her shoes so they wouldn't echo when she walked. She needed to find a place she could think with some fresh air instead of the stuffy feel in the castle. Hagrid's hut would have been her go-to place if it wasn't so late. She didn't want to bother him or get him into any trouble for her visiting in the middle of the night. Besides, if she did that it would be best to bring Ron and Harry so it didn't look to out of place for her to be there so late. She was friends with the half-giant but Harry and Ron did seem closer to him in that aspect.

As she walked Hermione found herself going up a flight of stairs that seemed to be never ending until she got to the top of the Astronomy Tower. She breathed in the air and walked slowly to the railing, trembling hands reaching out to wrap around the metal and she glanced down as the memory of Albus Dumbledore dying just below this spot ran through her mind. Harry had seen it happen and told the two of them that Snape had been the one to deal the killing curse to the beloved Headmaster.

It had been later revealed from his body that the Headmaster had been dying slowly from a curse specifically located around his hand, and that the Potions Professor had been the one too slow the process and make it less painful for him. When ruled by the courts and after listening to the portraits in Dumbeldore's old office tell them of everything they been sworn to secrecy about including the incident they ruled him as innocent of murder. Since it had been Dumbledore to say to kill him if it came to that. Like a mercy killing.

She slumped on the rails letting them hold her up knowing that even if the rails looked old they were still strong. Back then she had been relieved when Snape hadn't really betrayed the rest of them, his loyalty was something she had come to admire that day. It had been weeks after the battle that they let him out of the hospital after being bitten by Lord Voldemort's snake. Horocrux actually, but that wasn't really something the wizarding world had needed to concern itself about. Herself, Harry, and Ron had taken care of them.

Nothing had changed when Snape came back to school though even after nearly dying, he was still the same man. Still had those cold calculating eyes. The only reason he was aloud to remain as a Professor was that all the other teachers had insisted he keep his position, and Slughorn had stepped down to go back to living at home with his weird picture trophies of students. Which Hermione had always found creepy ever since Harry told her about them and then following that had seen them for herself at his office.

The new Headmistress Kathlyn Lavigin even when berated by parents who didn't quite believe Snape to be a innocent man held the same position as the rest of the Professors. The woman had been appointed to the school by the Wizarding Council to keep order, and was, in a way, elected by the mass of the population for the position.

Finally her mind went away from the tower and eveything that had happened because of the events that had taken place there two years ago. It went back to the issue she was having right now in the present. How was she going to make this relationship with Severus work? Even before that she had to figure out a way to be around him more than a few times a week for a couple hours or atleast long enough to get a daily dose of energy. Not only for that though, but so she could get to know him better and get him to notice her. The real reason she didn't want to tell him about her being a Veela and that he was her mate was because then he might just feel obligated to say yes. She didn't want an answer not based on love.

Everyone had thought him evil before and he happened to be a turning point in the war not to mention the sacrificies he had made for the Order. No one really knew him or how he would possibly react to about anything. Perhaps Dumbledore would have but it wasn't possible to ask him now.

She ran a hand through the strands of her hair in confusion. How was she suppose to spend more time with him so she could possibly start on the relationship she would be in until she died? Which hopefully didn't end in six months and a half. She racked through her mind for something she could use. He was the Potions Professor. So... something to do with potions then? But she already got top grades in the class. It's not like she was someone that needed tutoring. She was passing the class with flying colors, not failing.

A wave of exhuastion fell over her and she leaned further down to press her forehead against the railing. She really needed to work out how she would be staying awake for the days she couldn't get in close contact with him, and she couldn't depend on being able to touch him in class either. He didn't always come to the back of the room. Probably because she would help the others at her table when they had questions or wanted something checked.

Her head shot up a moment later her eyes glowing. The Invigoration Draught! She remembered making it back in fifth year. It was suppose to energize the person that drank it. Not only that, but she didn't have any the supplies so she would have to go to Snape for them.

She blinked after a moment and she dropped her head back down. That was just for one day though. She sighed loudly.

"Miss Granger? What are you doing up at this hour of the morning?" A soft voice came from the direction of the stairs.

Hermione whirled around cursing the sound she had made as she did. She recognized that voice from when she had come back for her seventh year, it wasn't one you could forget especially after that greeting everyone had received at the start of the new school year. "I-I couldn't sleep. I'll get right back to my dorms now though. Sorry Headmistress Lavigin."

The old woman just smiled at her in an amused manner. "I thought I told all the students to just call me Kathlyn or Lav." Kathlyn moved from the stairs with an odd grace to stop infront of Hermione, her silver hair falling down to midback in a single wave. The Headmistress peered down at the Gryfindor girl with sharp honey eyes that never missed a detail of what was going on around her, or that's what the students said about her. "Something is troubling you at this late hour. It's best to tell others so they can help you dear." The right corner of her lip curved up, the left unable to simply because it was no longer there.

Every witch and wizard seemed to have a battle scar of some type from the war. Hermione was always left wondering what curse would leave a scar like that though. "It's nothing important." She lied smoothly not seeing how her personal problems were any of the woman's buisness. Even if McGonagall had already told the Headmistress about her situation. She would rather keep it under wraps.

The eyes followed her every movement before the Headmistress stepped back to the side so Hermione could see the stairs beyond her. She suspected L-Kathlyn had to know it wasn't the truth to let her go so easily. The Headmistress was known for letting kids go that had so obviously ditched class. It acted like a guilt trip for most and they never did it again. "Very well. Just remember that me and the staff are here to help you with _anything_ you will ever need."

She nodded her head and slipped past the older witch and down the stairs. Hermione took the steps two at a time in her haste to get down. Anything. That was right. Students that did their own projects or research would go to their respective Professors and ask them for help, or to confirm certain aspects, and many other things. She was simply making the Draughts for... well, her own health. Snape had seen her and said she looked sick so if she went to him and asked for him to do something as simple as supervise her on the potion he should do it. She couldn't just mess up on a potion when it was to help her health.

It was the perfect solution.

Now all she had to do was get to her dorms without running into the caretaker. She had kept away from him getting here so it shouldn't be too hard. Still she could feel her steps becoming heavy. The energy drain was finally catching up with her again. That and not having eaten anything yet as of today.

Hermione was walking along a corridor when she heard foosteps advancing in her direction and she froze looking into the gloom around her for someplace to hide or get out of the main area of the hall. The large windows to her left did nothing to help light the place since it was approaching the new moon. Perhaps it would keep whoever it was from seeing her though. At least it wasn't Filch, he always carried a lamp with him and she would have known if his damned cat had caught sight of her. That creature hissed like a demon. She edged herself closer to the hanging portaits on the right wall.

"Lumos!"

She squinted at the sudden bright light even as her heart beat faster and the Veela in her reared up at the commanding voice.

When her eyes had adjusted to the light she could see Professor Snape standing in front of her, looking down at her with those piercing dark eyes. "What could possibly be your reason for being out of the dorms at this hour Miss Granger?" He said it as if he had caught other students wandering the corridors tonight, or perhaps this morning as well.

Hermione had to fight to steady her breathing at him being so close so suddenly. She was very tempted to reach out and touch his wand hand that was closest to her, to feel the amazing rush of energy that would flow through her veins at the simple contact. "I-i was just heading back." she said choosing her words carefully so he would hopefully let her be on her way. Fighting down the blush at her stutter. How was it that she couldn't act normally in front of him anymore after finding out he was her mate? Well, duh, being her mate was a good enough reason for her to be nervous. Was that what it was though? That light feeling that filled her body and made her mind drift as if her head was filled with clouds.

Still she should have known he woldn't let her go as easily as Kathlyn had. "So you have already accomplished the mischief you've been up too for tonight? What _exactly_ have you been doing Miss Granger?"

Not what she wanted to do. Which was him. Undressing... Hermione quickly threw her thoughts out the window cursing the Veela in her mind even though it had done nothing to conjure up that imagery right then. The Gryfindor girl took a step back at Snape's accusing tone even though she had no reason to be afraid. A snippet from a book entered her mind about the Veela only ever being submissive to their mate. Once more she cursed the Veela inside her. Couldn't it leave her alone for a moment and let her control her own life? "I haven't been doing anything Professor." Why did it hurt so much whenever she didn't say his first name? "I just went up to the Astronomy Tower for some fresh air and to clear my mind. I was having trouble sleeping and thought a stroll would help."

"Has it?" He asked still glaring down at her.

Her blood ran cold with that gaze. How on earth was she suppose to change it to something that softened at the sight of her with endless love in its depths? "It has." she replied evenly, raising her head to look up at him, forcing herself not to flinch away. If she did he would just throw away her earlier comments without a second thought. She waited calmly for him to dismiss her in a gruff voice.

Instead she felt her face heat up slightly as his hand moved forward to lie across her forehead. Her skin burned beneath as warmth seaped into her as well as that blast of energy. He frowned as if he had tasted acid. "You have a fever, and yet you are still galavanting around at this time in the morning with the weather like this? Come." he moved his hand away and motioned for her to follow.

Hermione let a small breath of air she had been holding escape in a whoosh when he turned around. Her feet were already following him and she found herself wanting to go wherever he went no matter what, and that wasn't the Veela whispering in her ear. Oh no, the damn thing wanted her to jump him in the hallway! Right now, right here. Out in the open for anyone to see if someone happened to pass by. Being secretive was not in it's nature apparently. Shoving it down and telling it to shut the bloody hell up she hurried for a moment so she could walk by Severus's side to wherever he was taking her. Anywhere was fine by her as long as she could spend more time in his vicinity.


	7. Chapter 6

"Professor? The infirmary is in the other direction." Hermione pointed out after they had been walking silently for a few minutes in the dark after he had put the light on his wand out.

"Early morning is the only time Madam Pomfrey gets her sleep." Snape replied passively as if they were talking about the weather.

"But, where are we going then?" When Snape gave her a cold look out of the corner of his eye she quickly tacked on, "Professor." His gaze drew away from her to the hall in front of them that they had just gone down some stairs to get to.

"Use your eyes Miss Granger. You don't recognize my classroom after having to clean up that mess the other day?" He opened the door to his classrom after having said that and swept in ahead of her going right toward his closest of in-class supplies. "I thought you were suppose to be the, 'brightest witch of your age.'"

He had said the words so sarcastically that she found herself having to respond even though she didn't want to open her mouth in case she said something weird to him. Like say, about the veela thing. It didn't seem to have any opinion on her telling him or not so far though. The only bright thing she could find in this situation. It seemed rather content with just being near him, for now anyways. "I _am_ the brightest witch of my age." she snapped back.

"Don't be so cocky." Professor Snape made the snide comment from within the storage room.  The effect of the words seemed to be muffled as if he was behind another wall but it still came across crystal clear to her.

Hermione bit her lip, angrily. She frowned before muttering, "That mess was made by Gilligan not me. You should have made him finish it." Even if that was the only reason she had found out he was her mate. If not for being held back and forgetting to give him the finished potion she would still be lost and probably wouldn't have come out for this late night stroll either. Her frown slipped from her face, suddenly less bitter about it.

"He would have taken too long to get it done."

She glanced up quickly when she heard his voice so clearly to see he was infront of her again.

That was fast. I wonder what else he would be fast at, her inner Veela questioned from beyond the mental cage she had created for it that seemed to be working for now. She pushed the inappropriate thought away before realizing something. Her eyes flickered up to look into his. Had he just complimented her indirectly?

Snape didn't seem to notice how she was now openly staring at him and just pushed the vial he held in his hands toward her, "Drink this, wait ten minutes, then head back to your dorm."

She took it from him glancing down at the vial but it was too dark to see much of the defining qualities within to judge what the potion was. Raising the thin glass to her lips she drained it quickly, making a small gag noise as she brought it away from herself. Why did anything that was suppose to make you feel better always have to taste bad? Even the supposedly cherry flavor syrup stuff her mom would give to her when she was a child had been horrible, even more so because you expected it to taste like, well, fruit of some sort.

Snape had made his way to the other side of the room, only making a small comment on her reaction to the medicine. "There is a glass beneath the left sink." When she had turned to look at him she saw that he had taken up a quil at his desk having sat down and started writing on a plain sheet of parchment.

Hermione blinked looking over at him almost quizically. He had given her the medicine would it really be much more of an effort to go get the water for her? Then again, he wasn't here working in the infirmary where it was expected that the patient be taken care of, and she wasn't much of a patient to begin with. Being able to walk and all. Still, she wished he would have. Biting at her lip she told herself to stop it. If he knew about the mate thing and was in love with her it would be a different story, surely. She hopped off the table walking over towards the sink he had told her about.

Ugh, all she wanted to do was just go up the steps to his desk and sit in his lap to cuddle while he did whatever work he was currently doing. To place little kisses on any exposed flesh her lips could get to. Even unbotton a few at the top of his shirt to get more access-No. Hermione, stop mentally undressing him! He's in the damn room!

Forcing the imagery from her mind she bent down to open the cabinet beneath the sink smacking herself in the head for the ridiculous thoughts she was having. There was absolutely no reason for her to be acting like they were already together, or atleast continuously wanting to act like they were. Besides she would probably freak him out and have to go through rigorous questioning if she actually acted on her thoughts. Raising a hand to rub at her head lightly she wished she hadn't just done that as her head had started pounding shortly after. Grabbing the glass on the bottom shelf she stood back up and turned on the tap.

It was then she noticed the rasping of quil on paper had stopped. She glanced up over at the desk her stomach doing little flips when her eyes met his. Her breath quickened for a moment and she forced herself to swallow to hide how he was effecting her. It felt weird to do so since her throat was dry and she quickly pushed the glass beneath the sink to fill with water not able to tear her gaze from his that seemed to be keeping her pinned there.

Why was he staring at her like that anyways?

She was about to ask when out of the corner of her eye she saw his lips begin to move. "Hitting one's self is considered a sign of insanity in some cultures Miss Granger, at the very least delusion. Please refrain from doing such actions in my classroom even if class is not in session."

Hermione found herself giving a hesitant nod while her fingers switched the tap back off and she raised the glass to her lips for a sip, feeling the taste of the potion from before slowly disapear as fresh spring water poured into her mouth. Were his pipes connected to a natural aquifer? She found herself wondering while trying to find something to distract herself from his presence. As he turned back to his papers she remembered what she had wanted to ask him later that day as she hadn't foreseen running into him this early on.

"Professor?" She questioned after taking another sip from the glass rather liking the cool water running down her throat. It helped her body feel less hot not to mention soothed her sore throat. She didn't think she would have noticed that she was getting sick if it wasn't for him pointing it out to her. Hermione waited for him to look up from his desk after she adressed him "I was thinking, because of the spells I've been having of late. If it would be best to make a few Invigoration Draughts? I kind of passed out last Sunday while at the Quidditch match and I would like to stop it from happening again. So I was wondering if you could help me get some made?" she questioned, then further explained her reasons when he didn't say anything within the few seconds she had paused, "Just to like supervise and get access to the ingredients. It would also just be good practice for my potion making skills as well."

Snape was looking at her with his usual steely gaze. "Are you actually executing the practice of asking to go into my storeroom instead of sneaking in to get ingredients for some obscene potion?" She flinched visibly at those words and she noticed his brow raise in question. He had to be reffering to second year when Harry, Ron, and her had made a batch of Polyjuice Potion. It made the drinker look like another person, all you needed was to add a hair from the person you intended to turn into it before taking the drink. She remembered it tasting especialy foul as well as her mistake in strand of hair. She had gotten cat hair from a Slytherin's robes instead of the actual girl's hair. "As for supervising I suggest doing what most of the other students do," Hermione figured out pretty easily that the Slytherins were not part of this most before he even finished the sentance, "contact Slughorn and ask him to come to the school to supervise. He seems to like coming here not only for helping the other students but for stealing from the green houses."

Biting at her lip and feeling an overwhelming wave of guilt pass through her she blurted, "I apologize for the incident in second year, but I'd rather not have Slughorn supervise for the actual potion making." Hermione spoke slowly revealing that she had been the one of the three to go into his stocks that year. Which apparently he had suspected for some time now even though she was the least likely to do such a thing. The only reason she had agreed to steal from the store room was because Harry was enough trouble that year with everyone thinking he was the heir to Slytherin. It wouldn't have boded well for him to be sneaking around at the time. Not that any time was good for acting in such a way.

Professor Snape stuck the quil into the ink bottle next to him leaving it there for now. "I do hope you realise Miss Granger, that Slughorn has more experience than me, _and_ I have a busy schedule. Unlike Slughorn who can work around your own schedule since all he does otherwise is sit alone in his home." His tone of voice had changed from the normal annoyance to outright aggravated at the end, though she wasn't sure if it was because he disliked the other Professor or because Slughorn was a bit of a hermit which was annoying in itself. And disturbing. She always thought he was rather disturbing.

"I'm aware of his... routines Professor, but I would rather not bothe-"

"So instead you intend to bother me with your requests when you are perfectly capable of making the potion youself?" Snape interupted, "Your scores rank high, matching Malfoy's even. You shouldn't need supervising at this point Miss Granger. Now I suggest you send an owl later in the morning-"

"No." Hermione said quickly, in turn interupting the Professor and was awarded with a cold glare. Her skin chilled at his gaze, if death had eyes... "I didn't... what I meant is..." She sighed after hearing her own voice and her struggle to come up with an explanation. It wasn't something she would normally do, normally she could deal with this well enough by herself. Damn Veela and it's submissive tendencies! It was going to end up making her look like a bloody fool! Using a moment she attempted to collect her jumbled thoughts. Because really, she hadn't meant to aggravate him further or insult him for that matter. "My own schedule is a bit of a mess these days and-" I don't want to take away from Slughorn's rest time. She sucked in a breath. No, it was best she didn't say that. Glancing up at Severus she thought she saw a flicker of amusement in his eyes to see her struggling to find a justifable reason for having him supervise her instead. Anger flashed under her skin. "well, you heard about the incident where he froze when Ron drank the poisoned drink. If I were to fall over from sudden exhaustion it might end up giving him a heart attack or something. You would be able to react faster and-and..." Hermione trailed off unsure if she was even making a strong argument at this point. She probably sounded like a blubbering fool.

Oh Merlin! It was happening already!

"From what I hear Miss Granger, such an incident hasn't happened after that. When a student accidentally let their flesh touch a particularly poisionous ingredient he was fast to give them the antidote and even had it out all ready in the case that something like that would occur. I'm sure you would be fine in his care."

How was she losing this? If she wasn't a Veela she would be fine with dealing with Professor Slughorn even if he did creep her out... Besides that fact, why did Severus have to be so... so... him? This was torture! She couldn't settle for Slughorn! She needed Snape! Otherwise there was no reason to be making the potions-okay, that was a lie, she needed the draughts if she was going to get though this without being touchy feely which would surely earn her more than a raised brow. "Professor," she tried again, what felt like the millionth time now. "Slughorn doesn't seem very capable in the potions-"

"That's just a rumor." Snape assured her before she could even finish. Hermione almost growled in frustration at this. Did he like seeing people squirm for his own sadistic pleasure or something?

Her mind flashed to an image of him hovering over her, hands making her tremble with every precise touch along her skin. She forced it out of her mind, her bottom lip puffing out a bit to form a pout. "Well, even so, I wouldn't feel comfortable with him supervising me. I've personally known you much longer from the classes you've taught for much of the duration that I was here." She gnawed at her lip for a moment as that image of him above her tried to creep into her mind again. Now was not the time for that! Focus! "You're more capable than him anyways and would know how to make the potion the most effective by not just using instructions from the book." She still remembered the alterations he had made to his own school book that Harry had found. "I'd much rather entrust my health to you."

His brow arched slightly at those words. It took a moment for Hermione to realise what she had said and what else it could mean considering they were alone. She opened her mouth to quickly clear it up or even take the words back though she didn't want to. "Very well." Snape said before she could get a word out and he turned back to his ink well, picking up the quill. "I'll send an owl later this evening with a list of times and you will choose whichever works best for you." He glanced over at her one last time. "Finish the water or put it down the drain then leave Miss Granger, your ten minutes are up." His attention had fully shifted back to the papers now.

She stood silent for a moment then drained the glass before setting it carefully in the sink and turned around to walk out the door.

**/ / /**

His gaze lifted from the class work schedule he had been working on to watch her leave once her back was turned. The stubborn Gyrfindor girl seemed calm now that she had gotten her way, not that he would really push her towards Slughorn. Snape had been curious of her reasoning behind it though. Any students not in Slytherin insisted the older teacher help them instead. It was like Slughorn was stealing his students, which he found mildly irritating.

Hermione was the only non-Slytherin insisting that he supervise her instead of jumping for an excuse to not have to spend extra time around him. She had made a few fine points since Slughorn did just copy the text. A walking manual is what he was.

His mind wandered back to finding her in the hall leading from the Astronomy Tower. Her face had looked deathly pale under the light of his lumos spell. A tinge of red on her nose from being in the cold for so long. She looked like she had developed a cold and her clothes weren't the many layers suppose to be worn in winter. He had almost criticised her for not putting on her winter cloak instead of the summer one she still had on. But when she had backed up looking almost scared and quivering in the cold he had pressed the urge down and instead, before he knew what he was doing, had pressed his hand to her forehead. It had been hot, a complete contradiction to how cold she looked.

When he had done so though he noticed a slight tint to her cheeks and had withdrawn his hand. He was still confused as to what that had been about. But he never let his mind wander on mundane matters.

The schedule he was working up was more important than a Gryfindor student that Minerva could have seen to had she been the one to find her. Seeing as the woman was asleep at this time though he didn't see a reason to wake her about the Gryfindor being out and about.

As he started writing again he realised he had forgotten to deduct points from Gryfindor. Next time he saw her, he thought to himself.

**/ / /**

As soon as she heard the door close behind her she smiled. Yes! She had succedded in her task of getting time to spend with him alone, not to mention making the potions which she considered a great plus. Hermione was very tempted to jump up and pump her first through the air in victory, and maybe even do a little dance. Considering that someone might spot her though-including Professor Snape if he decided to come out of the classroom right then, which she would rather not have to explain her obvious enthusiasim to his agreement. That would just be awkward.

So she walked from the front of the classroom and down the hall to the stairs. Climbing them she did spare a glance over her shoulder, hoping to catch sight of him even if he did happen to be glaring at her back. Not seeing him she felt a wave of disappointment before continuing to walk up the stairs.

Once reaching the first floor she noticed the sky seemed to be a dark grey rather than completely black. Hermione realized she had been down there in the dungeons alone with Professor Snape longer than a mere ten minutes. Had anyone seen her enter and leave the classroom? The skin along her cheeks flamed slightly at the thought. She hoped not.

It wasn't exactly normal for a student to be up a these times what if a fellow student or teacher saw and assumed... Calm down! She drew in a shaky breath shoving those thoughts away. It's not like she actually did anything. Sure, her mind went off a bit to... well, you know. But that wasn't her fault! It was the Veela. That's what she kept telling herself anyway, knowing she had conjured up that image just fine by herself.

Shaking her head she got to the moving staircases and quickly ran up them to whisper the password to the Fat Lady and slip into the Gryfindor Tower silently.


	8. Chapter 8

There was something running along her inner thigh. A set of fingers moving steadily up, leaving her skin tingling in their wake. She shifted, trying to get them to press harder against her but they remained feather light all the way up her leg, slipping up to her waist before trailing back down her other leg in a similar manner. A murmur broke past her lips, a sort of beg, for them to go back up again. They did.

 

She squirmed against the touch, desperately trying to get closer. To get even just the fingertips to linger at her core rather than entirely skip over it. "Pl-" A gasp escaped her, cutting off her plea before it could even begin.The fingers had moved up above her waist and were currently skimming along her stomach, making circles around her breasts as her body practically hummed with delight.

 

_"Oh."_

 

One of the hands had gone momentarily but then she felt those fingers wrapping around her thigh, raising her leg in the air to feel a brush of lips on her skin. They pressed once, twice, continuing slowly up her thigh. She pressed herself further into the touch that sent her skin ablaze.

 

It was addicting, just feeling those lips travel up one thigh and down the next, leaving a kiss at the center of her waist whenever they changed which thigh to focus it's attention on. Her own lips parted as she let out a breathy moan and rocked her hips forward once, trying to tell him where she wanted it. Needed it. Opening her mouth-intending to call his name she was interupted by her own,

 

"Hermione," Hands gripped at her shoulders and shook her, hard. "wake up." She just groaned in response, raising her own hands to push Ginny's away. "Come on, you can't stay in bed all day. Classes, remember?" She finally managed to bat her hands away to which she could hear her friend laugh above her as Hermione still refused to open her eyes. Trying to hold onto the dream she had been having. "If you don't get up soon and come with me down to the Great Hall, Ron's going to eat all the food and you'll be a zombie today."

 

Finally opening her eyes and feeling the last traces of the dream fall away into oblivion she scowled. "Even Ron's stomach has it's limits."

 

"Not from what I've seen." Ginny said with a smirk before she arched her eyebrow down at her friend. "By the way, what were you dreaming about? You were rolling around in your bed moaning as if you were in some nightmare."

 

She just let out a heavy sigh, "No. It wasn't a nightmare." Thinking back on it Hermione could feel a blush creeping up her face. "It... was about Severus." She bit at her lip suddenly wishing the one in her dreams had touched her there as well.

 

"No offense, but ew." Ginny shivered as if a cold draft of air had come through the open window. Judging from the light coming in from outside there wasn't a cloud in the sky which would suggest it wasn't cold today. Besides that, it was rather warm in the room, or maybe she just thought that cause she was still currently huddled under the covers. "I didn't need that imagery."

 

Hermione just laughed. "Well I didn't tell you that you had to picture me and him together now did I? That imagery is completely your own fault." At Ginny's frown she laughed again before pushing herself up from the bed to swiftly change from her pajamas to school robes. "So, Great Hall?" She grabbed Ginny from where she had stood waiting for her, glancing over the room empty of any other dorm mates. Apparently she really had been sleeping late.

 

Ginny quickly grabbed for her school bag just before they got out the door and started down the stairs to the commons. "What's got you excited all of the sudden?" Ginny asked while trying to keep up with the pace Hermione has set as they slipped from Gryfindor Tower and started down the moving staircases.

 

"Well; there's food at the Great Hall, my lovely friends," She noticed Ginny look at her like she was crazy out of the corner of her eye, "and people. I like to see people. Don't you like to see people?" The words rushed out of her mouth as she took two steps at a time.

 

"Okay." Ginny said slowly, drawing the word out while giving Hermione an incredulous look. "You're either on caffeine, pumped up with muggle drugs, or too happy about seeing a certain someone. Which is it?"

 

"All of them." Hermione stated before glancing to Ginny with a smile. "Just the latter. Come on. You're the one that told me to hurry up. Why are you suddenly moving like a turtle? Get a move on slow poke." She laughed again, it felt good, nice after being all sickly just last night.

 

"Hold up. Got a question for you."

 

Hermione turned around to face Ginny who was still a few steps behind her. "Yeah?"

 

Ginny came to a stop when she got to the step just before the one Hermione was on. "Where were you last night?" Hermione made a small 'hmm' sound in response as if asking for more details. "I got up in the middle of the night to go and get a drink and you weren't in bed. Where did you go?"

 

"Astronomy Tower." Hermione replied while she started to bounce on the bottom of her heels. Gosh, she hadn't felt this alive in days. "I couldn't sleep so I took a walk and ended up there. Ran into the Headmistress," she paused for a moment, her bouncing subsiding for that single second. "Well, not literally. She came up the steps though and then I left. I did manage to evade Filch the whole night." she added quickly. For a second she bit at her lip, hoping Ginny was getting the hints.

 

From her eyes widening she must have finally pieced it together. "You ran into him? When? Where? How?" Hermione just laughed as Ginny fired off a series of questions at her and spun on her heel to jump down the steps. "Hey! Rabbit! Get back here and answer me!" She could hear the thundering of a pair of feet behind her.

 

Once her own touched the last landing she turned and started at a run down the hall. If they kept up with this talking they really were going to be late for breakfast.

 

She skidded to a stop just before coming to the large doors to quickly compose herself. Not wanting to appear too up and crazy infront of the whole school. Or just crazy. "Hermione," Ginny hissed from behind her. "why are you standing here now?"

 

She glanced to the side at her friend. "Why do you ask so many questions?"

 

"Because I'm curious about what went on." She gave Ginny a funny look. "Okay, and you always have the answers to every question. I would think the ones about your life wouldn't be so difficult to explain."

 

"Later. Food now." Hermione said the words like a robot though the effect was probably lost on Ginny, being a pureblood witch and not ever having seen one of those old robot movies. She tugged her towards the door, letting go before they actually passed over the threshold to walk down the aisle and sit down beside her friends.

 

"You're both late." Ron commented just before sticking a bun in his mouth.

 

Hermione glanced over to him. "Very observant." she said before grabbing a piece of toast and hastily coating it with jam before taking a bite.

 

"It took awhile for sleeping beauty here to get up." Ginny slid into the seat next to her, giving her a look that clearly stated that she wanted to hear the full story later. Hermione just nodded absently while reaching forward for a glass of juice.

 

The table went quite after that as there was only two minutes left of breakfast before they had to get to classes. When Hermione got up to go to class Ginny quickly followed.

 

"Okay, so when?" At Hermione's confused glance Ginny was quick to elaborate. "When are you going to tell me all the details?"

 

She had to pause and think about it. Besides the usual of classes being to public, as well as the library, there were few places they could speak about it without needing to cast a muffliato spell. Which she didn't want to fully depend on when hiding the secret that she was a Veela. It all just seemed too delicate a matter incase someone counteracted it or somehow overheard through another spell. "How about the Room of Requirement in the evening."

 

"We'll meet outside first right?" Ginny asked as they entered their first class for the day, Transfiguration.

 

"eah." Hermione replied before they went and sit down in their seats.

 

The class passed by in a pleasant blur. She didn't feel to tired to participate like most days and had raised her hand eagerly to answer any questions McGonagall asked the class that another student couldn't answer within the first five seconds. Though, she may not have given them much time in the first place. She just loved that she wasn't falling over in her chair right then and knew she probably wouldn't be able to be like this again for a few days and wanted to do the most that she could with it.

 

As the class left though McGonagall called from the front, "Miss Granger, could you stay after class for a moment?"

 

Hermione skidded to a halt, muttering a quick, "If I'm not at class when it starts just tell the Professor that I'm speaking with McGonagall." to Ginny. Her friend nodded before walking out the door with Harry and Ron.

 

Turning around she picked up her bag as she passed by the desk, walking up to the front of the room where McGonagall motioned for her to follow her into her office attached to the classroom at the back. She hurried through the door, hearing it shut behind her when the Professor went through after her Hermione went to a seat across from the desk and sat down. "What is it you wanted to talk to me about Professor?"

 

McGonagall was silent as she made her way to the desk and sat in the chair before speaking, "I noticed that you were acting like your old self in class. Raising your hand and answering the questions without giving the other students much of a chance." If the Professor wasn't smiling she would have thought she was being reprimanded for her actions. "I'm guessing your found your mate?" McGonagal inquired.

 

"Yes. I did find him." Hermione said quickly, though she paused in giving any more information.

 

"Which house is he in? I'll have to make arrangements with the other Head of House."

 

Opening her mouth she was about to say Slytherin but stopped abruptly. Severus was the Head of House, he would then know she was a Veela. "Well, I don't think I need arrangements right away." At her Professors questioning look she continued on, "I just found him a few days ago and I kindof need to work on developing a relationship first. Dating and other stuff until I suddenly ask him to live in the same quarters, that might scare him off. I also haven't told him that I'm a Veela yet because of that seven day thing, and I'm pretty sure I'm going to need more than seven days to make him fall in love with me and vice versa."

 

McGonagal slowly nodded her head. "That makes sense. If you need any help though or-for whatever reason-it gets toward the end of the time frame for you just ask. Especially when it's toward the end of the months you have. I'm not going to lose a student over her mate not saying yes after you survived a war."

 

She bit at her lip, slightly flustered of how much she was being looked out and cared for. "If it comes to that, sure. But for now I think this is the best approach. Once I know he's not going to say no I'll tell him I'm a Veela and-"

 

There was a small, "hmm" sound and she glanced back towards the Professor as her gaze had started to wander to the wall behind her.

 

"What?"

 

"Well, Miss Granger, I agree that you don't need to ask them to live with you right away but, you should tell them you're a Veela outright rather than keep it hidden as you seem to be planning. Relationships are built on trust and honesty. I think it would be best you're honest from the get go," Hermione went to open her mouth but McGonagal just raised a hand to stop her from interrupting, "telling him that you're a Veela will not put your life in danger. As long as you don't ask him if he loves you after the first date, which I don't expect you would do."

 

There was a slight pause and Hermione took the moment to process the information. "I suppose that would work better, it's just..." she frowned for a moment trying to figure out a way to word this without saying exactly who it was. "Me and him have this history from back when I started school, and I'm not quite sure how to bring it up because of that. He wasn't necessarily mean to me but, he wasn't nice either so it's going to take a bit more than just asking him out-which I'm honestly struggling with. It just makes it more complicated."

 

"Well then make sure those old feelings aren't there anymore. A lot of people have changed after the war," That was true. Malfoy had helped her back at the Quidditch game when she passed out. "it shouldn't hinder you by too much. I still highly suggest you tell him about the Veela thing beforehand though. It'll give your mate sometime to atleast come to terms with that aspect. Of course," McGonagal sighed. "if there's a problem I'll do what I can to help. Your friends know who it is right?"

 

"Just Ginny knows. He wasn't very nice to Ron or Harry either so I'm putting off telling them. They'll just over react, and Ron would try and punch him."

 

At this small confession McGonagal frowned. "That's unfortunate. You'll tell me who your mate is when you're ready right? And the House they belong to so I can make arrangements for while you're still at school."

 

She bit her lip lightly. She doubted arrangements would need to be made. Surely she could just use his quarters? "I'll tell you the House when I'm ready, but, I would rather we make our own arrangements if it's possible."

 

"Yes, that's possible." The Professor glanced at a clock on the side of the desk and Hermione watched her eyes widen slightly before turning back to her student. "I'm afraid I've kept you longer here than I had planned. You should go to class. If anything comes up or you need something just ask, Hermione."

 

She nodded, giving a smile as she got up from the chair to pick up her book bag and swing it over her shoulder. "I'll do that Professor." Turning to leave she was stopped when McGonagall called after her,

 

"You can call me Minerva."

 

Glancing back toward the Professor she gave a nod. "Okay. Thanks for everything Minerva." she said before leaving the office and then classroom to get to the hall and head off to her next class.

 

She felt as if the day passed like a gentle breeze, nice and warm. No classes seemed to go on forever or end to quickly. The only thing she didn't like was that she didn't have Potions for today and therefore wouldn't see Severus. Though he was going to send her a letter later, which she was looking forward to even if it was just to select a time to meet for making the draughts she would need to get through days when she couldn't touch him.

 

Hopefully there was any early time slot available on school days so she could feel like this for a few of the days out of the week. It made concentrating on classes easier since she wasn't falling over all the time, attempting to sleep with her eyes open, things the Professors didn't like to have happen in their classrooms. Plus, it surprised them that Hermione had been doing those sort of things. Though one glance at her seemed to explain it really well, tired. Usually.

 

Today she was up and bouncing whenever she was just standing around. It surprised her Professors but they didn't seem to mind her raising her hand as much. Of course if this went on for days-like she wanted it to-they would go back to trying giving other students a chance to answer.

 

For now though Hermione just skipped down the hall before she came to a stop at a familiar wall and waited for her friend to show up. Already she began pacing infront of it until a door appeared indicating that the Room of Requirement was open and not in use currently.

 

In a few minutes Ginny appeared, mouth opening to speak but Hermione just shushed her and opened the door, entering the Room of Requirement.

 

"Okay, so? Now are you going to tell me?" Ginny asked after the door had firmly shut behind her.

 

Hermione plopped onto one of the couches in the room. "Yes. Now, I will." She proceeded to tell her friend an indepth overview of last nights events. Well, early morning really but who cared about the time when they got to be with their mate?

 

"That's great for you!" Ginny exploded when Hermione had finally finished, having barely taken a breath between each word. "You'll be able to spend time with him, get your little zaps of energy, and when you can't you'll have the draughts you'll be making when he's supervising. Sounds like a perfect plan to me."

 

Hermione gave a quick nod of her head. "It is. I can barely wait for the letter to arrive so I can pick the time for the lessons and the days as well. It would best if we're alone, which would make it easier for me to get close and not have rumors flying around while I develop the relationship with him."

 

"Right." Ginny said before she took on a more serious look. "So how will you be going about that? You going to tell him outright that you're a Veela or get him to notice you as a woman rather than a student then tell him, or something else entirely?"

 

Hermione frowned, biting at her lip. She had had this same discussion with McGonagall before. "Well, I don't want to say it right away because I don't want to scare him off or make him feel obligated to say that he loves me right away just so I won't die. I want him to mean it when he tells me that, and for both of us to be ready for the words, you know?" Ginny gave an understanding nod at her words. "So I'm not really sure yet as to when, I guess I'll just say it when we come to that bridge." That was the truth. She wouldn't know how to go about it until she got to that point. Whenever it felt right, that she was ready to divulge the information. "Anyway," she began while standing up from the couch. "we both have homework and need to start on it so come on, before curfew passes and we'll have to sneak back to the dorms."

 

Ginny sighed slightly as she was getting up after Hermione. "Right when I was comfortable."

 

With a little laugh she opened the door so the two could walk back out into the hall and make their way to the Gryfindor Tower. Once inside Hermione went straight up the stairs into her own room to see a letter on the side table. A smile quickly formed on her face and she jumped onto her bed before reaching for it and opening it up, taking a slight notice of the open window that the owl that had left the letter must have flown through.

 

_Miss Granger,_

 

_Since you insisted on having me supervise choose what days and times would be best for you from the table below._

 

_Monday - 7pm to 9pm_

 

_Thursday - 3pm to 5pm, 8pm to 9pm_

 

_Friday - 4pm to 5pm, 8pm to 10pm_

 

_Saturday - 9am to 10 am, 1pm to 3pm, 4pm to 5pm, 7pm to 9pm_

 

_Just circle what works for you and send the letter back._

 

_Severus Snape_

 

Her smile grew as she looked over the script in his writing. It just seemed to echo his personality right onto the paper. She could almost hear his voice in her head, speaking the contents of the letter to her. Taking a quil from the table she dipped it into a inkwell before circling the one time set for Monday, along with the latest times for Friday and Saturday. This way she could be with him privately for six hours every week.

 

Folding it back up she started to get up when she heard a hoot from above her. Craning her neck she spotted an owl sitting on the upper frame of the bed and motioned for it to come down. It flew down onto the desk and she tied the letter to it's leg to watch it disappear through the window a moment later.

 

Settling back on her bed she grinned wondering what the first private lesson would be like.


End file.
